The problem for both campaigns is the increasing doubt over whether their plans are now going to be drastically delayed, or if they are affordable at all given the current economic crisis. The lone voice on energy still seems to be the nightly adverts from T. Boone Pickens. I think it is safe to say that all sides agree that one of the key priorities by all concerned is to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, and that clean, renewable energy is an important element of any plan. The only problem is that such a plan requires huge amounts of capital investment, on the sort of scale that only the government can manage. However, if the government is strapped for money and there is no movement in the credit markets where is the money supposed to come from. Obama certainly sees clean energy as the engine of a new ‘green-tech’ economy and, what with increasing concerns over the damaging effects of global warming, and with 5 million projected green-tech jobs being created by it, this is one area of Obama’s future plan that he couldn’t conceivably forestall. Part of the recent bailout bill did include tax breaks for companies building solar panel installations which could give that particular industry a initial boost.
The keystone of McCain’s energy plan is the building of 45 nuclear power stations by 2030. The price tag for this would be $6 Billion per power station, much of which, again, would have to come from the government rather than Wall Street. No doubt the “Drill Baby Drill” part of his plan would be greatly stimulated by the $4 Billion tax cuts he wants to give to the big oil companies but most experts not only can see that this wouldn’t do anything to help the domestic problem of price increases, even after the ten years it would take to get that oil flowing, but that also it is not going to address the “addiction to oil” problem – only extend it.
“The challenge for the new president is to “reduce reliance on foreign oil, address high fuel bills and stimulate the economy on a tighter budget”, says Mark Harrington of Newsday.com
“There’s no better time than now to start building more low-emission transportation, wind and solar,” said Ashok Gupta of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental organization. “Worrying only about the higher cost was “narrow thinking” in light of potential benefits . . . we have to look to technology, energy efficiency and renewables to be the answer,” he said. “That’s the only way – to invest our way out of the [economic] problems.”
