Comparing Energy Proposals of Obama and McCain

Making America energy independent is a big issue in the presidential campaign, as Americans struggle with rising fuel prices.

Both major candidates have proposals on the table.        

John McCain and Barack Obama have ambitious energy plans to get the nation less dependent on foreign oil. But they have different ways of getting us there."

McCain says he will commit $2 billion a year to advance clean-coal technology. 
McCain also wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030.   He supports a cap and trade system that would cut carbon emissions to sixty percent below the 1990 levels. And he wants it done by 2050.

Here's what he told Fox News:
" We've got to start, start exploring off our coasts. There's gas and oil reserves out there, if we announce the discovery of large deposits of oil it will bring the futures of oil down, get going on nuclear, wind, tide, solar, and a battery that will take a car a couple hundred miles before you have to plug it in. there's a thousand flowers out there that gotta bloom and we gotta go after every one of them."


Barack Obama's plan would invest $150 billion over ten years in clean energy research, for things like bio-fuels, solar power and wind power.   He would require that 25 percent of electricity comes from sustainable energy sources like wind or geo-thermal by 2025.  Like McCain, Obama supports a cap and trade system to cut carbon emissions. But he wants it 80-percent below the 1990 levels by 2050.

Then, there's this:
"I've proposed a second, $50 billion stimulus package that would send energy rebate checks to every American. so that you have got a few hundred dollars in your pocket to help deal with rising prices now. And I'll crack down on oil speculators who may be artificially driving up the price of oil."

Just to put this all in perspective, today the national average for a gallon of unleaded is $4.10  A year ago it was $3.05




(Caroline Shively, Fox News)