Obama's Turnaround On Oil Drilling, Tapping Reserve

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STEVE INSKEEP, host:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

And I'm Renee Montagne.

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are duking it out. Last week, the argument was about using race in politics. This week, it's all about energy and bringing down energy prices. We have two reports from the campaign trail, starting with Don Gonyea, who's traveling with Obama.

DON GONYEA: Yesterday was Barack Obama's 47th birthday. He used the day to talk about energy policy in Michigan, a state that could be among the toughest battlegrounds of this year's election, and a place where a battered automobile industry means deep anxiety about the economy for so many. Senator Obama says there are economic opportunities to be gained in the shift to greater energy efficiency in cars and in other industries.

Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois; Presidential Candidate): For a state that has lost so many jobs and struggled so much in recent years, this is an opportunity to rebuild and revive the economy.

GONYEA: New in this speech in Lansing was a call to address record high prices at the gas pump by tapping the nation's strategic petroleum reserve. That's a reversal for Obama. He also defended his support for a compromise proposal in the Senate that would allow some expansion of offshore drilling for oil, which Obama has previously opposed.

Polls have shown that the public supports the idea of offshore drilling, a position that John McCain has pushed. Here's Senator Obama.

Sen. OBAMA: The truth is none of these steps will come close to seriously reducing our energy dependence in the long term. We can't simply pretend, as Senator McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem. We need a much bolder and much bigger set of solutions. We have to make a serious nationwide commitment to developing new sources of energy, and we have to do it right away, right now. We cannot wait.

GONYEA: The Democratic candidate explains his shift, saying the compromise, while not perfect, would also provide investment in renewable fuels and more fuel-efficient cars, including plug-in hybrids. Obama's speech, kicking off a week of focus on energy and the economy, also called for $1,000 tax rebate for families to offset high energy costs.

Additionally, he proposed a $7,000 tax credit for buyers of plug-in hybrid cars, and he said by the end of his first term in office, 10 percent of the nation's total energy must come from renewable energy sources.

Don Gonyea, NPR News, traveling with the Obama campaign.

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