Fresh energy problems for new president

The debate over offshore drilling is not expected to subside in the first months of the next presidency — no matter who sits in the White House.

Responding to a shift that high gasoline prices has produced in the public's attitude about domestic energy production, Obama has reversed course and now says he could support a limited lifting of the offshore drilling moratoria, but only in some areas and as part of an array of other energy programs.

Lifting the offshore drilling bans, even if accomplished early in a McCain presidency, would not produce any oil for five to seven years. Yet some of Obama's major energy initiatives could be just as elusive and equally long-range.

Obama, for example, wants a $150 billion, decade-long program to spur the commercial development of alternative energy sources: ethanol made from switchgrass instead of corn; new solar, wind and car battery technologies; more energy efficiency and finding ways to make coal more environmentally friendly.

The program would provide $15 billion a year for 10 years. But don't expect the money anytime soon — not in the first months or even the first few years of an Obama presidency.

The money under the Obama plan would come from selling pollution allowances to release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as part of a broad program to address global warming.

Unlike Bush, both Obama and McCain favor a mandatory cap on greenhouse gases and want Congress to create a cap-and-trade climate proposal. But its prospects, and whether it will contain the kind of revenue collection mechanism envisioned by Obama, is anything but certain. If it fails to materialize, Obama's $150 billion program for spurring new energy technologies fizzles.

Yucca Mountain, Alaska refuge
Other energy issues will greet the new president. McCain and Obama agree on some, sharply disagree on others, including the role of nuclear power.

A McCain presidency would be a boon to the nuclear power industry. He promises government support for building 45 new power reactors by 2030. Obama has expressed skepticism about nuclear power expansion while acknowledging the need for the reactors now operating.

A bigger divide exists on the nuclear industry's thorniest problem: reactor waste.

McCain is a fan of Yucca Mountain, the proposed Nevada waste dump that is to be the burial place for more than 100,000 tons of highly radioactive waste generated by the country's commercial reactors. Obama calls Yucca a mistake. Critical decisions on whether to go forward with it will have to be made early in the next presidency.

The Obama campaign on Saturday released a TV ad for Las Vegas and Reno stations criticizing McCain. The ad says, in part: "Imagine trucks hauling the nation's nuclear waste on our highways to Yucca Mountain? John McCain supports opening Yucca. He's not worried about nuclear waste in our state, only in Arizona."

Ironically, Obama and McCain agree on one of the most polarizing energy and environmental issues of the last quarter century — whether to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Neither wants to open the Alaska refuge to energy companies, something Bush has been trying to do for nearly eight years.

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