September 2, 2008 - Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president on August 28 night, as party loyalists in Denver finished a week marked by soaring rhetoric decrying America's reliance on oil while extolling alternative and renewable energy.
"I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy" - Senator Barack Obama
Before 80,000 people in a packed football stadium, Obama said he would tap domestic natural gas reserves, invest in "clean coal" technology and harness nuclear power.
"I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels," he said, pledging to create 5 million new jobs along the way.
"For the sake of our economy, our security and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East," said Obama, who capped the four-day Democratic National Convention.
The speech responded directly to Republican assertions that Obama's opposition to broadly lifting the moratorium on offshore oil drilling on most of the Outer Continental Shelf is contributing to high gasoline prices. "Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution," he said. "Not even close."
Presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain has said he supports the development of wind and solar power, and in recent years has championed legislation to combat climate change. But McCain came under fire earlier this year after he missed a vote to extend production tax credits for renewable projects beyond this year.
McCain will travel to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, this week to accept his party's nomination. His campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds blasted Obama's "misleading speech."
"When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain," Bounds said. Obama "still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling."
McCain essentially kicked off the Republican convention on Friday when he tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Palin is not viewed as an ally of the energy industry and, in fact, has taken public positions stressing her independence on that front.
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Seen as a reformer by some in the Republican Party, Palin is credited with jump-starting the long-stalled plans to build an estimated $30 billion gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope to the Lower-48 states.
One of her first acts after taking office in January 2007 was to scrap a producer-driven plan to build and operate the pipeline that had been blessed by former Governor Frank Murkowski, who was defeated by Palin in a primary vote. She opened the bidding to competition via her Alaska Gasline Inducement Act.
Palin last week signed a bill granting TransCanada a license to construct the pipeline and receive up to $500 million in incentives, raising the ire of major producers ConocoPhillips and BP, which had submitted their own competing pipeline proposal outside the AGIA process.
Thus, for the first time since the late 1970s, energy is shaping up to be a major issue in the presidential election. Democrats last week sounded populist themes addressing public angst about high gasoline prices, national security and global warming, and Republicans still in Washington kept the heat on with regard to offshore oil and gas drilling.
"I bet by the time the first debate comes, energy is the top issue," New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former Energy Secretary, told Platts.
In rousing speeches inside the Pepsi Center arena and at events across the city, Democrats renewed calls to move the US in the direction of energy independence and tied high gasoline prices to middle class economic hardships.
Meanwhile, top House Democrats met quietly in Denver to devise a strategy for the expected battle with Republicans demanding Congress lift restrictions on domestic oil and gas drilling. Republicans have closed gaps in the polls in the past month as McCain and members of Congress have effectively placed the blame for high gasoline prices on the Democrats' reluctance to open protected areas to drilling.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who will lead that fight when Congress returns in September, Senator Hillary Clinton and some Western governors investing heavily in renewable energy used the prime-time venue and the presence of 15,000 journalists to bang away at President George Bush's record - focusing on the increased share of foreign oil consumed by Americans.
"America needs a president who will once and for all end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and invest in renewable clean energy," Pelosi said on the convention's opening night.
On August 26 night, Clinton joined Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer in asserting McCain is every bit as guilty of fostering US dependence on foreign oil and ignoring global warming. "We need a president who understands that we can't solve the problems of global warming by giving windfall profits to the oil companies while ignoring opportunities to invest in new technologies that will build a green economy," Clinton said.
Delegates packed the arena for Clinton, who began her failed bid for the nomination two years ago, shortly after calling on oil and gas companies to finance a $50 billion fund to support the development of biofuels to replace gasoline and wind, solar and clean coal technology for use in electricity generation.
Clinton said The US can't compete in a global economy "by padding the pockets of energy speculators." She talked about the creation of "millions of green jobs," striking a theme Democrats stuck to throughout the week.
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