McCaskill touts energy plan in Nevada

Sunday, July 23, 2006
Claire McCaskill ponders the concern of a potential constituent on a campaign stop at the City/County Community Center in Nevada on Friday. McCaskill, a Democrat currently serving as Missouri State Auditor, is challenging Republican Jim Talent for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

By Steve Moyer

Herald-Tribune

Nevada, Mo. -- Claire McCaskill ended a nine-city tour in Nevada Friday afternoon in the City/County Community Center in Nevada. McCaskill, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat now occupied by Jim Talent, is promoting her energy plan to end America's dependence on foreign oil.

Democrat Claire McCaskill, candidate for U. S. Senate, points to a graph illustrating the growing profits she says are being enjoyed by oil companies, while Missourians face prices at the pump of around $3 per gallon.

McCaskill said she believes tax breaks now going to big oil companies who she said are making record profits and that tax incentives should go further to promote the development of other renewable sources of energy. She supports increasing production of efficient vehicles and supports creating a renewable energy standard that call for 10 percent of our electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020.

"We've been doing these tours around Missouri for months," McCaskill said. "I found out that there's a whole lot of people outside of Kansas City and Saint Louis that we need to talk to."

McCaskill told the crowd she wanted Missouri corn and soybean farmers to benefit from the energy potential of their crops.

"My plan is simple. If we're going to be rid of our reliance on Middle Eastern oil and if we're going to kick our addiction to oil, we need to invest in renewable energy sources, like ethanol, biofuels, wind and solar energy, for our national security interests and for our economic security interests," McCaskill said.

During the question and answer session following her prepared remarks McCaskill was told of the Prairie Pride operation planned for Vernon County and questioned on biodiesel use. After saying she had looked into using a biodiesel-powered bus she joked about leaving out biodiesel during her speech.

"I did mention bean farmers," McCaskill said. "I really did," noting that biodiesel production is another important aspect of reducing dependence onf foreign oil.

McCaskill said that big oil companies have been profiting enormously from the rising price of gasoline and said they had been the beneficiaries of $9 billion dollars in government largesse.

"Last year's energy bill was an unfortunate reflection of this Congress and the Bush administration," McCaskill said. "That's what you get when you put an oil man in the White House."

"They gave big oil $9 billion. They gave a big steak dinner to the big oil companies and saltine crackers to renewables. I would give the steak dinner to the renewable sources and I wouldn't even give big oil crackers."

Republicans, however, have responded to such assertions by saying in a July 14 press release, "According to an offcial document complied by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, which helped write the tax package in the Energy Bill, the offical price tag for oil and gas incentives was actually $2.6 billion, represening the smallest portion of a tax package written to encourage energy production of all kinds."

McCaskill also said the federal deficit was at record levels.

"We're not going to pay that, our grandchildren are," McCaskill said.

McCaskill told the audience that antitrust laws passed in the 1920s were being ignored by federal regulators, resulting in large monopolistic companies.

"In the 20s several antitrust laws were passed," McCaskill said. "To thrive we have to have competition. We have more concentration in companies now than in the 20s before the laws were passed, now we only really have five oil companies. We need tougher regulations and tougher laws to bust up monopolies. You can find different prices for the shirt on your back, different prices for the shoes on your feet but you can't find different prices for the gas you buy."

McCaskill said family farms had been decimated by mergers of companies.

"We used to have 22,000 family farms producing hogs in Missouri," McCaskill said. "Now there are 2,200. A farmer told me five years ago he could take his hogs to five different markets, five days a week. He could look at the prices and choose the best one to take his hogs to. Now he calls up the company and they tell him what day he can bring them in to sell and what price he'll get for them."

McCaskill said she wanted transparency in oil prices.

"We have to have transparency in pricing and we have to look aggressively at price gouging," McCaskill said. "We need to be able to see what happens at different stages and where the big jump in prices comes."

McCaskill said she had been a long-time supporter of ethanol.

"I was for ethanol before ethanol was cool," McCaskill said. "The Democrats proposed a law to lower taxes on gasoline that contained ethanol in the 90s. I supported that law 15 years ago."

Republicans have been playing up McCaskill's lack of support for the Energy Bill, saying Talent has been a strong supporter of the Energy Bill, and favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

McCaskill reiterated her position that the Energy Bill gave too much to big oil interests and too little to farmers, and said provisions need to be in place that get some of the profits from fuel markets in the hands of the farmers, and that consumer education is vital as reducing demand is another reducing dependence on foreign oil.

She vowed that if elected, she'd serve the interests of farmers and be on the side of the people, not big oil.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: