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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
16
, 2008 |
CONTACT:
David Willett
202.491.6919
Josh Dorner
202.679.7570
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McCain Energy Plan: Same Old DrillingNew Radio Ad Calls for Support of Clean Energy Legislation
Washington, DC: In remarks today Senator McCain indicated that in hisspeech tomorrow in the heart of the fossil fuel industry he will focus noton clean energy and fighting global warming but instead on openingAmerica’s coasts to drilling. “Tomorrow, I'll call for lifting thefederal moratorium for states that choose to permit exploration. Ithink that this -- and perhaps providing additional incentives forstates to permit exploration off their coasts --- would be very helpfulin the short term in resolving our energy crisis,” said McCain.
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director:
“The truth is that drilling our coasts will not solve our energyproblems. Additionally, the federal moratorium exists because onestate could jeopardize beaches in neighboring states with riskyoffshore drilling. An oil spill off the coast of Virginia would impactbeaches, marine life, and tourism in New Jersey. More importantly,lifting the ban would do nothing to reduce gas prices for the averageAmerican family. It would take a decade to bring new leases intoproduction and then they would only line the coffers of the oil industry, which raked in tens of billions of dollars in record profits last year.”
“Oil companies are not even using the nearly 6,000 offshore leases theyalready own. Issuing new leases is just a license for them to destroymore of our public resources for their own profit, while doing nothingto help ease pain at the pump. Senator McCain has said that he supportsfighting global warming and clean energy solutions—more off-shoredrilling is antithetical to that approach. To protect consumers andget us on the path to a clean energy future, Senator McCain shouldinstead support the Consumer-First Energy Bill currently in the Senate.”
Separately, the Sierra Club today began running a radio ad in several Ohio mediamarkets calling attention to Senator McCain’s ironic use of windmillsin Ohio TV advertising despite his failure to support renewable energyinitiatives in the Senate, and asking him to vote for incentives forwind power and other renewables when they come up on the floor.
Full Script: NARRATOR “John McCain is running ads that featurewindmills and, truth is, windmills --and the clean energy and jobs theygenerate have a large role to play in Ohio's future. But not because ofanything John McCain has done. Fact is, John McCain opposes requiringthe use of more wind and solar power to generate electricity -- he'sargued against incentives for the clean energy industry whiledemanding billions in subsidies for nuclear power and refusing toimpose windfall profits taxes on Big Oil. Clean energy is key to Ohio's economic future. TheConsumer-First Energy bill gives John McCain the chance to supportrenewable energy and end subsidies to oil companies. Call SenatorMcCain at 202-224-3121. Ask him to stop spinning windmills and to startsupporting them and other clean energy technology to help put Ohioback to work. Paid for by the Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club.”
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