Barack Obama's energy policy  

In an earlier discussion, I have already stated McCain's position on energy. Now, I am going o highlight Obama's.

Obama would give $500 worth of tax credit to solve the short term pinch of the high energy prices.

Obama wants to ensure that US energy futures would not be able to be traded on unregulated offshore exchanges. Sound common sense right? But this loophole has been opened up by the Bush administration when they deregulated nearly every aspect of the economy.

Obama wants to work with other countries to crack down on excessive oil speculation. This would mean a common market where there is more transparency but very rigid due to every country virtually playing on US terms.

Barack Obama wants a windfall profit tax on oil comapnies. The money would then be used to give the tax relief mentioned earlier.

Obama wants oil comapnied to double their output and wants all oil fields to also tap natural gas or lose its lease. In that way, America can be energy independent overnight. But the drawback is, that the oil fields in America are expected to last 30-40 years (as long as the Saudis). When we double the output, we halve the amount of time the oil wells to run dry. In other words, if we do that, our oil wells would dry up within 15-20 years. There would still be natural gas but I do not think that that is enough. He is taking the risk that US would be in line with his goals of alternative energy.

Obama wants to co-operate with other nations, particularly India, China and Brazil, to reduce the demand of oil. He would like them to also be energy independent themselves and not raise the prose of gas.

Obama would invest $150 billion on clean energy over the next 10 years. This is so similar to the one that McCain has. He wants to invest in clean coal technology, FFVs, grid and so on. He also wants to sell the technology around the globe. Creating the jobs required. (Obama's economic policy is centered around the green economy).

Obama wants to double Energy R&D spending and skilled workforce.

Obama wants to force companies to go green by forming a low national Carbon standard. I really wonder how is he going to do this. If he can, this would be key to US being energy independence.

Obama wants 25% of electricity consumed by the US to be from solar, wind and geo-thermal by 2025.

Obama wants 48 million barrels of biofuels to be in production by 2013. This can be done but should it? Obama estimats this to replace the oil that may be depletin by then. This figure is to rise to 150 million barrels by 2030.

Obama wants to gradually double fuel efficency standards by 2025. This would decrease the demand for oil.

Obama wants to have nuclear power plants where they are safe. The common myth is that Obama is against nuclear energy. His plan actually shows that nuclear power is the go to solution. However, to be fair, McCain seem to want it more urgently. Obama wants to set up a nuclear exploration and safety committee that would take years to form and make. In fact en envisages the first nuclear power plant to be up only after 2025. McCain wants 45 nuclear power plants to be running by then.

Like McCain Obama wants the federal government to be green. His however is disappointing in the fact that he only set the federal government a target of 1/3 green energy by 2020, whereas McCain wants it completely green.

This is a rough gist of Obama's plan. A straight difference that you can tell between Obama and McCain is that Obama is adopting a more iron-fisted policy when it comes to energy. For example, Obama wants to make older and inefficent light bulbs illegal by 2011. That is a straight out order. His plan tackles the speculators in more detail as compared to McCain.

Another example of his iron fist approach is the way he want to force oil companies to extract more oil and gas. This would lead to a confrontation with the industry as the oil would be worth more in the future to them than now. That would hurt their bottomline profits for the future. He is going to have hell with oil companies I tell you.

I am for the way he handles illegal speculation but not all speculation. I also like the way he handles the energy issue as a global problem and not an American one. That is something he has addressed and not McCain. I think he has set his target for green electrical consumption too low. He should jack it up from 25% to 50%. I think the heavy handed way is the only way to go for oil companies and the industry. I am all for forcing energy conservation by increasing efficency and he shows how he is going about doing this.

I am against his stance on Bio-fuels. I think it would spiral food costs out of contol. Even though both want inedible corn that grows twice as fast to be used as bio-fuel, the price of corn would shoot up. This is because farmers would grow inedible corn instead of edible ones. I am also against spending for energy R&D and skill training. Give companies tax breaks for doing so instead. I am also against the fact that despite all the sacrifices we have to make we still would need 10 million barrels of oil by 2030. Though that would be just a third of our energy supply, it is still a third too many. I would prefer to have more nuclear plants to compensate for the oil.

I am also against a windfall profit tax. I think oil companies would charge us even more than the $500 Obama is offering.

What if US cannot meet the demands set by Obama? What if oil wells run out faster in the US or Middle East? He talks about cutting demand but not compensating supply overseas. E.g. U.A.E oil wells are going to dry in 5 years, they are ready for an oil-less future. What about a country like Brunei whose oil is drying in 15 years and they are still not ready. Indonesia is feeling the pinch now as it was not ready for the transformation from an oil exporter to that of an oil importer. These countries may be far away but they affect the price of gas in US too.

Amongst the 2 energy plans I think Obama's is better. It is more transparent than McCain and we can see the pros and cons more easily. It is also more elaborate. What do you think? Do you think anything is missing? Or is something there that you do not like? Please comment.