McCain, a week after taking heat from Democrats for reversing his stance on offshore oil drilling after long opposing it, sought to portray himself as a forward-looking leaderFRESNO, California (Reuters) - Republican John McCain
said on Monday if elected president he would challenge American experts
to develop a futuristic battery to power cars and win a $300 million
prize.
McCain, a week after taking heat from Democrats for reversing his
stance on offshore oil drilling after long opposing it, sought to
portray himself as a forward-looking leader on solving America's energy
crisis.
With Americans reeling from record-high $4-a-gallon gasoline during
the prime summer driving season, both McCain and his Democratic
opponent in the November election, Barack Obama, are pressing their proposals for tackling energy problems that are dragging down the U.S. economy.
McCain noted that Brazil has largely weaned itself from oil imports
by converting most new cars to flex-fuel capacity that use
alcohol-based fuels. Brazil went from 5 percent to 70 percent of
flex-fuel new cars in three years, he said.
"Whether it takes a meeting with automakers during my first month in
office, or my signature on an act of Congress, we will meet the goal of
a swift conversion of American vehicles away from oil," McCain told a
town hall meeting in Fresno, in rural central California.
The Arizona senator, 71, who would be the oldest person elected to a
first presidential term, finds himself behind Obama in polls but not by
a wide margin.
But in a worry for him, a USA Today/Gallup poll published on Monday
said voters are most concerned about energy and the economy and they
prefer Obama by a double-digit margin on each.
McCain said he would issue a Clean Car Challenge to U.S. automakers.
"For every automaker who can sell a zero-emissions car, we will
commit a $5,000 dollar tax credit for each and every customer who buys
that car. For other vehicles, whatever type they may be, the lower the
carbon emissions, the higher the tax credit," he said.
And he offered a big reward for whoever comes up with a
technological breakthrough: "A $300 million prize for the development
of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to
leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."
McCain, who has taken steps to distance himself from unpopular
President George W. Bush, also seemed to take a dim view of efforts by
Bush and others to persuade OPEC nations to lower the price of crude.
"Some in Washington seem to think that we can still persuade OPEC to
lower prices -- as if reason or cajolery had never been tried before.
Others have even suggested suing OPEC -- as if we can litigate our way
to energy security," he said.
The Obama campaign held a conference call with reporters to respond to McCain's energy speech and reacted with skepticism.
Obama economic adviser Jason Furman said over his long career in the
U.S. Congress McCain "had the chance to make a difference for energy
security and America's families."
"And he consistently not only didn't make a different but has stood
in the way of the people like Senator Obama who have been trying to
improve our energy security," Furman said.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Jeff Mason; Editing by David Wiessler)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
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