[quote=gandalf]
Obama has a sensible approach to energy policy. It’s the central issue of our time. Our energy policy undercuts our foreign policy. Contrast with McCain and the gas tax holiday. Enough said.
Obama is proposing large, local (as in, ‘here in the US’) investments in energy research, infrastructure and green technologies. I support this 100% and believe it will spur the US economy in far more substantive ways than the Bush tax cuts.
Imagine a breakthrough in transportation technology, for example, followed by 5-10 year replacement of the vehicle fleet. The impacts on the broader US economy would be game-changing. Electricity and the grid is the way. Obama will get us there faster than McCain.
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McCain did propose a gimmick summer gas tax relief. However, he’s also in favor of a whole portfolio of energy from nuclear, coal, & oil to various other “green” technologies. In the near to mid term, no one technology will be able to completely replace oil completely, but a whole portfolio of various technologies might help a lot. Also, you have to remember that right now, it cost a lot more energy to produce some of the “green” energy like ethanol. Also, one have to consider the cost of such technologies. Then there’s the fact that government does not own the car companies, so even if they come up with a oil replacement, it takes at least 4-5 years for them to incorporate it in the next generation of cars. The government would also need to completely replace all the gas station with one that sell the new fuel. All of this will take many years, unless we have a dictatorship and dump a lot of $ that we don’t have at the problem.
