Friedman Does Not Want to Drill

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/opinion/14friedman.html?em

Thomas Friedman brings up a terrific argument in this article; by focusing on technology of the past, Republicans are setting America up for economic failure.

I completely agree, except for one key point: McCain in no way is focusing on technology of the past; McCain is simply pushing to take advantage of the resources we have while developing the energy of the future.

The bottom line is no candidate is proposing a complete overhaul of American energy infrastructure. Obama is proposing to invest $150 billion OVER TEN YEARS to "catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future." First, give credit where it is due; he wants business to take care of this issue, not government. But come on. $150 billion over ten years? $15 billion a year? Even Obama admits that will not solve this issue; only "catalyze" it. Not only this, but much to the opposite of Obama's public talking points, he is actually hiding support for drilling in the fine print of his website:

"An Obama administration will establish a process for early identification of any infrastructure obstacles/shortages or possible federal permitting process delays to drilling in the Bakken Shale formation, the Barnett shale formation, and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska."

McCain proposes $2 billion a year towards clean coal technology and a goal of building 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030. Now, to Obama's credit, McCain provides no hard facts on how this would be accomplished. If Freidman is close to correct (which I am guessing he is) and each nuclear power plant does in fact cost $10 billion, McCain is proposing to spend roughly $22 billion a year on clean energy initiatives. So McCain actually wins the financial argument.

Here is the bottom line; both candidates support renewable energy, electric and hybrid vehicles, flex-fuel vehicles, alcohol based fuels, higher fuel economy standards, and clean-coal technology. Both candidates are proposing various incentives to promote these ideas. In addition to these concepts, McCain publicly proposes to expand oil production in this country to currently restricted areas and to invest in nuclear power, which are two ideas Obama has not expressed support for.

Both candidates are proposing energy change, and are putting a comparable amount of government money and influence behind this idea. Both candidates, apparently (I really can not believe I found this on Obama's website) are at the very least interested in expanding drilling capabilities. NEITHER candidate is proposing the type of Manhatten Project that would be necessary to solve this energy issue within a reasonable amount of time.

So if we agree to let the market economy take its course and keep the cost of energy overhaul away from taxpayer's wallets, I suggest we utilize our natural resouces to put a halt to the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind, protect our national security, and provide high paying jobs to American workers while the private sector works on defining the next generation. Both candidates support renewable energy in various forms; McCain just gives us a little more by campaigning on the concept of drilling in restricted areas and developing nuclear power.