McCain touts energy plan during Lima visit

LIMA - Energy took center stage during Sen. John McCain's stop in Lima on Thursday. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee wasted little time drawing distinctions between himself and his Democratic counterpart.

McCain said he has a plan to help America with its energy crisis. It starts with drilling off-shore for oil reserves off the coast. Part of the solution is an expansion of alternative fuels, he said.

Sen. Barack Obama has no policy on energy, McCain said.

"Yesterday he accused me of having President Bush's policies on energy. That's odd isn't it because he voted for the president's energy bill and I voted against it," McCain said. "I voted against having $2.8 billion in corporate welfare to big oil companies and they're already making record profits as you know. Senator Obama voted for that bill and its big oil giveaways. I know he hasn't been in the Senate that long but even in the real world voting for something means you support it and voting against something means you oppose it."

McCain said his opponent is against all the options that should be part of the solution.

"Senator Obama says he wants energy independence but he's opposed to new drilling for oil, he's opposed to nuclear power," McCain said. "He said the high cost of gasoline doesn't bother him only it just rose too quickly."

Motorists who have to fill up their cars at record-high prices just to get to work don't agree the problem is that the price rose too quickly, McCain said.

"He actually thinks raising the taxes on oil is going to bring down the price at the pump," McCain said. "He's claiming that putting air in your tires is the equivalent of new off-shore drilling. That's not an energy plan, my friends, that's a public service announcement."

It was a message that resonated with many in attendance.

"If we don't solve the energy problem we're going under. I believe he's got the right ideas in mind in particular off-shore drilling," Marcus Young, 48, a Lima resident, said. "If we don't start doing that pretty soon and start using what's right under our feet we're going down."

Alice Beals, 76, of Lima, agreed.

"It was exactly our feelings as well," Beals said. "We need to do the off-shore drilling. Until we do that we're continually going to be into this problem. I feel very strongly about that and I think he does too."

Some, however, said alternative energies are good ideas for the future. More needs to be done in the present to find more oil as a way to drive prices down, said Jim Baker, 86, of Lima.

"Don't try to talk us out of driving our cars, that's what made us what we are. We need oil. So we're using a lot of oil, let's get some more of it. We've got it," Baker said. "We need coal; we've got oodles of coal. They won't do anything about it. Nuclear energy, they drive me right up a tree that they won't let them build those plants."