John McCain on Energy for a Secure Nation

Today, John McCain Will Discuss How Our Dependence On Foreign Sources Of Oil Threatens Our National Security. Oil is not just a commodity. It is a strategic weapon that others use to threaten our economy and to finance terrorist attacks. In addition, the lines of our oil supply provide an ample target for terrorists.

· John McCain Will Break From The Failed Policies Of The Past And Lead A Great National Campaign To Eliminate Our Dependence On Oil. John McCain will lead the effort to develop advanced transportation technologies and alternative fuels to promote energy independence and cut off the flow of oil wealth to repressive dictatorships like Iran.

Dependence On Oil Provides Direct Support To Our Enemies And Threatens The Peace:

Rising Oil Prices Provide Massive Infusions Of Wealth To Some Of The World's Most Repressive Dictatorships. Oil wealth enriches bad actors in the world that support terrorism, finances the brutal repression of women in the Middle East, and supports criminal syndicates in our own hemisphere.

· Iran Alone Earned $66 Billion From Oil Sales to Others Last Year. This wealth encourages Iran to finance terrorists, threaten Israel, and defy international efforts to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. This wealth also allows Iran to suppress its own long-suffering population.

The Formation Of The OPEC Cartel And The Oil Embargo Of The 1970s Demonstrated Our Vulnerability. At the time of the oil embargo, we imported roughly one third of our oil. Today, we import almost two-thirds. Since 1973, the United States has gone from importing 6 million barrels of oil a day to 12 million barrels per day with petroleum payments comprising 41 percent of the U.S. trade deficit ($293 billion of $759 billion).

While Our Dependence On Foreign Oil Does Support Our Enemies, The United States Relies On Canada And Mexico -- Our Democratic Friends And NAFTA Partners -- For Much Of Our Oil. America imports about one third of its oil from Canada and Mexico. When politicians threaten to renegotiate NAFTA unilaterally, they threaten to disrupt relations between the United States and our most stable and friendly providers of oil. These politicians also forget that Canada is the most important export market for 36 of our 50 states.

John McCain Will Put America On The Path To Eliminate the Strategic Threat From Oil:

To Mitigate The Threats Posed By Our Dependence On Foreign Oil, We Must Increase Oil Production Here At Home. We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production of another 18 billion barrels of oil. It is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use.

As Part Of His Plan To Break The Stranglehold Of Oil, John McCain Supports The Development Of Alternate Sources Of Power For Our Vehicles And The Promotion Of Energy Efficiency. Ninety-seven percent of our transportation runs on oil. Cars and trucks consume almost 60 percent of all of the oil used in the United States.

John McCain Will Effectively Enforce Existing CAFE Standards. John McCain has long supported CAFE standards -- the mileage requirements that automobile manufacturers' cars must meet. Some carmakers ignore these standards, pay a small financial penalty, and add it to the price of their cars. John McCain believes that the penalties for not following these standards must be effective enough so that all carmakers have an incentive to produce fuel-efficient vehicles.

John McCain Believes Alcohol-Based Fuels Hold Great Promise As Both An Alternative To Gasoline And As A Means of Expanding Consumers' Choices. Some choices such as ethanol are on the market right now. The second generation of alcohol-based fuels like cellulosic ethanol, which won't compete with food crops, are showing great potential.

· Today, Isolationist Tariffs And Wasteful Special Interest Subsidies Are Not Moving Us Toward An Energy Solution. We need to level the playing field and eliminate mandates, subsidies, tariffs and price supports that focus exclusively on corn-based ethanol and prevent the development of market-based solutions which would provide us with better options for our fuel needs.

· John McCain Supports Flex-Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) And Believes They Should Play A Greater Role In Our Transportation Sector. Flex-fuel technologies cost less per car than options such as rear-seat foot rests. In just three years, Brazil went from new cars sales that were about 5 percent to over 70 percent of new vehicles that were FFVs. American automakers have committed to make 50 percent of their cars FFVs by 2012. John McCain calls on automakers to make a more rapid and complete switch to FFVs.

John McCain Will Issue A Clean Car Challenge. John McCain will issue a Clean Car Challenge to the automakers of America, in the form of a single and substantial tax credit based on the reduction of carbon emissions. For every automaker who can sell a zero-emissions car, John McCain will commit a $5,000 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.

John McCain Will Propose A $300 Million Prize To Improve Battery Technology For Full Commercial Development Of Plug-In Hybrid And Full Electric Automobiles. A $300 million prize should be awarded 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. That battery should deliver a power source at 30 percent of the current costs. At $300 million, the prize is one dollar for every man, woman and child in this country -- and a small price to pay for breaking our dependence on oil.