Invigorated Kerry outlines updated energy plan - Boston.com


BOSTON --Sen. John Kerry, appearing invigorated himself, outlined an energy plan for the country on Monday that called for reducing oil imports, increasing the number of cars powered by renewable fuels and focusing on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Some of the themes reprised those the Massachusetts Democrat outlined during his failed 2004 presidential campaign, but the fresh ideas and pointed rhetoric highlighted how Kerry both believes they have come of age, and that he plans to pursue them as he considers another White House campaign in 2008.
He labeled the energy bill he will file this week as "the most far-reaching proposal in our history." In 43-minute speech before a cheering hometown crowd at historic Faneuil Hall, he added: "Nothing else will protect our security and our world, if you believe the science."
Kerry proposed three ideas, including a hard target of reducing U.S. oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels per day as of 2015. That amount equals the daily volume of Middle Eastern oil currently used in the country.
He also suggested achieving that goal by requiring oil companies to provide at least one ethanol pump at their stations by 2010. In addition he called for a series of tax credits so consumers and carmakers will ensure 20 percent of all passenger cars and trucks as hybrids as of 2020.
"Twenty-twenty: That's not just a vision, that's a real program to jump-start energy independence," said Kerry, reprising almost verbatim a line from the energy plan he outlined during his failed campaign to unseat President Bush.
Both in 2000 and 2004, Republican mocked Democratic energy ideas, in particular painting former Vice President Al Gore and Kerry's wife, philanthropist Teresa Heinz Kerry, as out-of-touch environmentalists. With Heinz sitting on stage, Kerry responded for both of them amid an address that hewed closely to the prepared text and was devoid of the usual lengthy introductions and acknowledgments.
"Real crises stare us in the face, screaming for solution," the senator declared. "But nonexistent, contrived ones replace the real ones on the agenda of a Congress that wants to change the political climate instead of changing the climate. They remain bent on dividing the country with flag-burning and gay-bashing amendments to the Constitution, when we should be strengthening the country by living by our Constitution with a determined attack on global climate change."
Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, had a succinct reply.
"Let's hope that John Kerry's energy plan garners as much support from Democrats as his recent Iraq legislation."
It managed to garner only 13 votes in the 100-member chamber.
In the 18 months since Bush began his second term, Kerry and his staff have argued gasoline price spikes, unchecked increases in oil costs and ongoing terrorism and anti-American sentiment in the Middle East have broadened the audience for the senator's proposals.
Gore recently unveiled "Inconvenient Truth," a movie about global warming, while a panel of experts at the National Academy of Science said last week global warming is now an undeniable scientific phenomenon.
Bush unveiled an energy plan this year that calls for increased use of renewable energy sources. In his State of the Union speech, the president accused Americans of being "addicted to oil."
On Monday, he told reporters at the White House: "I have said consistently that global warming is a serious problem. There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused; we ought to get beyond that debate and start implementing the technologies necessary to enable us to achieve a couple of big objectives: One, be good stewards of the environment; two, become less dependent on foreign sources of oil for economic reasons and for national security reasons."
Prospects for any individual bill remain uncertain, though members of Congress expect some broad action in response to record gasoline prices.
In addition to reducing oil use through expanded availability of ethanol and hybrid vehicles, as well as increasing automobile fuel-economy standards, Kerry pledged to lead an unprecedented focus on global warming.
The third element of Kerry's plan calls for an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reverse greenhouse emissions growth by 2010, as well as a program aimed at lowering emissions by 2050 to 65 percent below what they were in the year 2000.
Two months ago, the senator used another speech at Faneuil Hall to outline a military withdrawal timetable from Iraq. A Kerry plan to have the troops withdraw by July 2007 died last week in the Senate on a 86-13 vote.
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On the Net:
Sen. John Kerry: http://kerry.senate.gov/
Kerry for Senate: http://www.johnkerry.com/
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