Kyle Bell

John McCain today announced that he was for offshore oil drilling. Despite the fact that a.) many states don’t support it b.) it would produce only a long-term solution to an oil-focused energy mix, John McCain flip-flopped his position on this issue. That’s another flip-flop that you can add to the ever-growing list of flip-flops he’s made on issues ranging from the Bush tax cuts to torture. All I have to say to the McCain people is: please, please make an issue of this in Florida. Voters there hate the idea of having oil rigs off the shore of their pristine beaches. Nothing like the view of the ocean, a sunset and an oil rig.

This is the second oil/gas related pander attempt McCain has made to voters in just the past couple months. McCain was the first to propose a “gas tax holiday” for the summer. The idea would mean higher demand for gasoline (raising prices) and would leave our infrastructure in dire condition. A little pandering is to be expected. Even Hillary Clinton couldn’t resist the temptation of a gas tax holiday. But when you pander as much as John McCain, you start to look like, well, George Bush.

Unfortunately for McCain, while he is off on the road acting as if he is distancing himself from President Bush, he in fact holds the same position as the president on offshore drilling. As CNN reports:

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush on Wednesday will ask Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling.

Bush has long called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, but Perino said he now wants to go further.

“For years, the president has pushed Congress to expand our domestic oil supply, but Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked such action,” she said.

While John McCain was taking the same position as Bush (and the mainstream Republican position that he once opposed), he accuses Barack Obama of recycling old policies. “I’m all for recycling — but it’s better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970′s.” Yet again, it’s unfortunate for Senator McCain that he is the one who is recycling the policies of the Bush years.

The truth is, America needs a bold new energy plan. Gas tax holidays and drilling off of the coast of Florida isn’t going to solve our energy problems. As Obama has said, we need an Apollo-like program for energy. It is going to take a massive investment in our government to come up with an affordable, reliable and cheap solution for our transportation and energy needs. Companies like Honda are leading the way with Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The U.S. government could do more to give tax credits to American companies like Ford, GM and Chrysler (as well as foreign companies willing to invest in American workers) to create cars and jobs that don’t rely on oil.

The technology is already there. Chevy is coming out with a plug-in hybrid known as the Volt which will run for 40 miles on electricity before it switches to its gasoline tank as a backup source. For people that live in the city and don’t travel for more than 40 miles a day, that would mean they would never have to visit a gasoline station again. Of course removing gasoline from our cars and putting them on electricity would put a strain on our power grid. That’s why green technologies such as the ones just being introduced in Indiana – wind power mills in the middle of farm fields – unobstructive and completely clean energy, are solutions that we should pursue. Solar energy should be given a second look, especially in the Southwest and other places in the “Sun Belt”. Geothermal  and tidal power (such as the one being proposed in the San Francisco Bay area) are promising as well.

When you have a problem, you should not seek out the same failed route to a solution. The solution to our energy crisis is not oil. It’s time, in the year 2008, that we put the combustion engine to rest. This country has some of the smartest minds in the world. If we set our minds to it, we can solve anything. John McCain and others like him will have you think that oil is a lifeline that America could not and should not be taken off of. Real leaders know that we should use the technology currently available to ween our way off of our oil addiction with hybrids and electric cars, while quickly coming up with a non-petroleum based alternative.