Presidential candidate Barack Obama

Presidential candidate Barack Obama

Barack Obama chose Lansing as the place to unveil a comprehensive plan to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil because, he argued, investment in alternative and renewable energy has the potential to revive and transform Michigan’s economy.

Calling this year’s election “the most important of our lifetime,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told the crowd at the Lansing Center that breaking America’s addiction to foreign oil is a challenge “greater than any we have seen in a generation.” He began by quoting something his Republican opponent, John McCain, said about the problem:

He said, and I quote, “Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making and was caused by the failures of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country.”

Obama then told the audience, to much applause, that McCain had been in Congress for 26 of those 30 years and had voted many times against legislation that would have reduced our dependence on foreign oil and helped develop alternative energy sources. Noting that McCain’s plan relies on more offshore drilling for oil and that the United States only has 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves while using 25 percent of the world’s oil, Obama cited Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens’ recent comment, “This is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of.”

He then offered a number of specific proposals with the intent of developing alternative fuels as a source of power generation and reducing our use of oil, foreign or domestic. Among those proposals, he repeated his plan to give every American family a $1,000 energy tax credit paid for by a windfall profits tax on the oil companies, pointing out that ExxonMobil recently posted the highest profit total in the history of the nation. But he noted that this was just a short-term help with higher costs, not a long-term solution to the energy problem.

Offering other short-term policies, he also argued that we “can and should increase our production of oil and natural gas” but argued that “we should tell the oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres they currently have access to but haven’t touched.” But in the long term, he said, the only solution is to transition to cleaner, more renewable energy sources, and that is where the bulk of his plan would focus. He proposed setting aggressive goals to achieve:

* Putting 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles getting 150 mpg on the road by 2015.

* Increasing the portion of our electric power generation that comes from renewable sources to 10 percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025.

* Reducing our emission of greenhouse gases by 80 percent by the year 2050.

To achieve those goals he proposed the following:

* A $150 billion investment fund, combined with private capital, to spur investment in clean and renewable energy sources, particularly in advanced-battery technology and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

* A cap-and-trade system of pollution credits to be auctioned off.

* An increase in fuel efficiency standards for automobiles by 4 percent per year.

* A $7000 tax credit to Americans for buying hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles, plus tax credits for converting already existing automobiles to the new systems.

* $4 billion in tax credits to the auto industry to retool existing plants for the production of hybrids and other more efficient vehicles.

* A requirement that all new vehicles be Flexible Fuel-capable (meaning able to use biofuels as well as gasoline) by the end of his first term in office.

* Development of the Alaskan natural gas pipeline, allowing increased power generation from natural gas rather than coal or oil.

He also proposed a goal of reducing America’s energy usage by 15 percent by the end of the next decade, to be achieved through the development and enforcement of building codes that would make all new buildings 50 percent more energy-efficient than currently required. He called this the “fastest, easiest, cheapest way” to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and our use of carbon-emitting fossil fuels in general.