NYT: Kerry, Touring Missouri, Pitches "Energy Independence" Plan

[DeepModem Mom]

Kerry, Touring Missouri, Pitches 'Energy Independence' Plan
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER and NEELA BANERJEE

Published: August 6, 2004


JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., Aug. 5 - On a day when oil prices reached a record high, Senator John Kerry issued a plan for energy independence on Thursday as he whistle-stopped across Missouri, promising to make the nation's security "depend on America's ingenuity and creativity, not the Saudi royal family."

As Mr. Kerry left his motorcade of some 20 cars in St. Louis and boarded a diesel-powered locomotive, his aides unveiled a plan that they said would lower energy bills for consumers and re-establish the nation's leadership in developing renewable energy sources.

Among Mr. Kerry's new initiatives are a $5,000 consumer incentive to buy so-called clean-energy vehicles, incentives to manufacturers to retool their plants to use clean fuels, and a "clean fuels partnership" linking agriculture, industry and government with the goal of meeting 20 percent of the nation's demand for motor fuels with alternatives like ethanol, biodiesel and, eventually, hydrogen. He is also calling for national reliability standards and upgraded technologies, which he calls a "smart grid," to prevent blackouts.

"We are going to reach for alternative and renewable fuels," Mr. Kerry said to tremendous applause in St. Louis on Thursday. "We are going to reach for energy independence. We are going to create the jobs of the future, because I want America's security to depend on America's ingenuity and creativity, not the Saudi royal family."

Crude oil prices closed at a record high of $44.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Gasoline prices have hovered around $2 a gallon in most of the country all summer, and last week the government reported that the economy had grown at a slower rate than expected in the second quarter, in part because of high energy prices....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/06/politics/campaign/06kerry.html

[FloridaPat]

1. Actually Bush has made America energy independent. By adding

Iraq as a American possession, we are getting oil from our own country! See how easy that was? None of this lowering gas mileage on thirsty SUV's. The soccor moms are safe again. Isn't life grand!

[Downtown Hound]

2. This is really gonna freak the Saudis out

Where's Osama when they need him?