Comparing Obama's and McCain's Energy Policies

WASHINGTON — The economy runs on oil. National security depends on it. And skyrocketing prices have hit every voter in America right where it counts: in the pocketbook.

Americans are paying roughly $50 billion a month for imported crude oil and refined products. That's money going by the tanker load to places like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Mexico in what is, by some measures, the largest voluntary transfer of national wealth in history.

Barack Obama and John McCain have both called for dramatic steps to curb U.S. reliance on imported oil, though neither has offered practical plans for paying for those measures.

In general, Obama wants to invest heavily in alternative fuels, while McCain would promote domestic oil production. In some areas, though, the two agree.

Here is a look at the candidates' approaches.

McCain

Key Positions

- End congressional ban on drilling for offshore oil (states have the authority to allow drilling within 3 miles of the coast)

- Opposes windfall profits tax on oil companies as a hindrance on investment in domestic production

- Strengthen regulations to prevent abuse in the speculative markets for oil

- Suspend the federal gasoline tax - 18.4 cents per gallon - for the summer

- Repeal some tax breaks for oil companies

- Encourage development of alternative energy sources with tax credits for wind, solar and bio mass energy and energy generated by tides.

- Offer consumers a tax credit of up to $5,000 for buying efficient cars

- Opposes tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a way to moderate prices; regards the reserve as a hedge against extended supply disruptions

Cost and how to pay for it

Largely unknown. If 1 million consumers took advantage of the $5,000 tax credit for fuel-efficient cars, the cost would be $5 billion, over some period of years. Suspending the federal gasoline tax would cost the Treasury about $74 million a day, or $2.2 billion a month. Repealing tax breaks for oil companies would not come close to paying these costs.

Record

Voted against the 2005 Energy Act backed by President Bush, claiming it contained too many handouts for major oil companies. Has voted to block drilling in the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

In His Own Words

"When we buy foreign oil, we are enriching some of our worst enemies. ././. They use it to pursue nuclear weapons ././. to crush dissent and to subjugate women. They use it to finance terrorists around the world and criminal syndicates in our own hemisphere."

Obama

Key Positions

- Seeks energy rebate of up to $1,000 per family

- Supports some offshore drilling as part of a longer-term comprehensive energy policy

- Favors releasing 70 million barrels of oil - roughly three days worth of U.S. consumption - from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help push down prices

- Would require auto companies to improve gasoline mileage on new cars by 4 percent a year, beginning in 2009. Current law requires each company's fleet of passenger cars to average at least 27.5 miles per gallon.

- Seeks to put 1 million, U.S.-made 150-mile-per-gallon hybrid cars on the road within six years, with $4 billion in R&D money and a $7,000-per-car tax credit to encourage consumers to buy them

- Would require oil and gas companies to drill on the 68 million acres of U.S. land they currently can drill on, or lose their access to that land

- Would invest $150 billion over the next decade in new technologies aimed at reducing oil consumption and doubling - to 10 percent - the portion of the nation's energy provided by wind, solar, bio mass and other renewable sources

Cost and How to Pay For It

Providing a $1,000 energy rebate to every household in the country would cost about $112 billion. Add to that the $150 billion he would invest in new technologies, and the $7 billion cost of providing a $7,000 tax credit to 1 million car buyers, and the total tab comes to $269 billion, spread out over a decade. Obama says he would pay for that, in part, by taxing so-called "windfall" profits from oil companies.

Record

Voted for the 2005 energy legislation supported by the Bush administration. The bill included billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks for oil and natural gas producers. Has voted to block drilling in the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

In His Own Words

"For the sake of our economy, our security and the future of our planet, we must end the age of oil in our time. ././. In ten years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela."