Subject: [big campaign] Gas Prices: McCain Helps Big Oil, Obama Provides Relief
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:22:28 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Sierra Club
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 21, 2008
CONTACT: David Willett, Sierra Club, 202-675-6698

                             High Gas Prices:
                   Barack Obama’s Plan Helps Consumers;
        John McCain Benefits Big Oil, Deflects Blame with False Ad

Washington, D.C.—Gas prices continue to reach new records. But Barack Obama
and John McCain have two very different strategies for  solving our energy
and economic crises.  Contrary to desperate and misleading attack ads from
John McCain, Barack Obama’s plan provides real relief for consumers
squeezed by energy costs; John McCain’s plan benefits Big Oil  -an industry
awash in unparalleled profits.

Barack Obama has a plan for $1,000 of real relief for consumers suffering
due to skyrocketing gas prices.  Obama has proposed a second-round of
economic stimulus checks and a $1,000 tax cut for working families and
middle-class Americans.  This plan offers struggling consumers real,
immediate relief.  This relief will be paid for by taking back the billions
in taxpayer-funded giveaways to Big Oil, while making sure that the oil
industry is paying its fair share on its tens of billions in record
profits.

"Barack Obama understands that hardworking Americans are suffering because
the failed policies of the Bush administration have crippled our economy
and left us at the mercy of hostile foreign regimes, oil companies, and
greedy Wall Street speculators," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive
Director.  "There’s no magic wand that is going to solve our energy crisis
overnight, but Obama’s plan offers America consumers the real, immediate
relief they need to get through today’s crisis.  Obama’s plan also has a
long-term strategy that puts on the path to true energy independence and
will end Big Oil’s chokehold on our economy once and for all."

John McCain’s plan benefits Big Oil, while denying consumers any relief
from pain at the pump.  John McCain has proposed a massive tax cut for some
of America’s richest corporations.  His tax plan would offer a stunning
$3.8 BILLION tax cut to the five largest American oil companies—including
$1.2 billion for ExxonMobil alone.  This plan would cost $1.7 TRILLION,
balloon the deficit and put any hope of balancing the budget well out of
reach.

“McCain is talking about old energy, not new energy. Instead of any real
relief for consumers, John McCain is following George Bush’s example and
has proposed a Texas-sized tax cut for Big Oil,” said Pope.  "His plan
would balloon the deficit and add to the billions in giveaways to the oil
industry that each and every taxpayer is already paying for.  Neither
consumers nor the American economy can afford 4 more years of these same
failed economic and energy policies.”

John McCain’s misguided "gas tax holiday" would do NOTHING to lower gas
prices, but would help pad Big Oil’s bottom line.  Over 230 leading
economists—including 4 Nobel Prize winners have denounced the plan.  These
experts called the plan a "bad idea" and wrote:

…research shows that waiving the gas tax would generate major profits for
oil companies rather than significantly lowering prices for consumers

…a tax holiday would provide very little relief to families feeling
squeezed.

The Bush-McCain offshore drilling plan would also do NOTHING to lower gas
prices, would threaten our pristine coastal areas, and pad Big Oil’s bottom
line.  The Bush Administration’s own Energy Information Administration
(EIA) admits that more offshore drilling won’t do anything to lower
gas—today or even two decades from now.

*  NO RELIEF AT THE PUMP: The EIA said the effect of offshore drilling on
oil prices at peak production (in 2030) would be "insignificant."
*  DIRTY: According to the U.S. Coast Guard, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
caused over 9 million gallons of oil to be spilled.
*  AT ODDS WITH ALLIES: Even prominent conservative T. Boone Pickens says,
"I've been an oil man all my life but this is one emergency we can't drill
our way out of."

"John McCain went straight to Houston last month to tell the oil industry
exactly what it wanted to hear—that he and President Bush want to let them
begin the unfettered, wholesale ‘exploitation’ of our coasts," said Pope.
"Even the Bush administration admits that this misguided plan won’t do a
thing to lower gas prices today, tomorrow, or even a decade from now.
McCain has said that his plan would offer consumers 'psychological relief,'
but the only ones feeling relieved are the people at his campaign and the
Republican Party cashing the millions of dollars in checks that Big Oil has
sent them."

             Paid for by the Sierra Club Political Committee,
    http://www.sierraclub.org/, and not authorized by any candidate or
                          candidate's committee.

                                   # # #

David Willett
National Press Secretary
Sierra Club
(202) 675-6698 (w)
(202) 491-6919 (m)
[email-masked]
www.sierraclub.org
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