Obama vows to protect coastline from offshore drilling

JACKSONVILLE, Fl (MCT) - Speaking from a waterfront park along Jacksonville's St. John's River, Barack Obama vowed to protect the ban on oil offshore drilling Friday and blasted John McCain for violating "the bipartisan consensus" that has protected Florida's coastline for decades.

"The politics may have changed, but the facts haven't," Obama said, noting that McCain once favored the ban. "The accuracy of Sen. McCain's original position has not changed: Offshore drilling would not lower gas prices today, it would not lower gas prices next year, and it would not lower gas prices five years from now."

Obama was in Jacksonville for an evening fundraiser and will be in Miami to address the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Saturday. The Illinois senator joined a parade of Democratic leaders bashing McCain for offering up what they consider a politically expedient move that will do little to lower gas prices at the pump.

Republicans, however, believe they've found a potent cudgel to use against Democrats: the effect rising gas prices are having on a slumping economy. They signaled Friday they have no intention of backing down.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto, speaking aboard Air Force One on a fundraising trip to Naples, Fla., said President Bush will use Saturday's radio address to reiterate his call for Congress to lift its ban on drilling along the Outer Continental Shelf and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Obama said Friday a better approach is to offset the rising cost of fuel by enacting his economic stimulus package, to investigate potential market manipulation of gas prices by oil companies, and to focus on reducing fossil fuel consumption and increasing energy alternatives.

He compared oil drilling to what he called McCain's "gimmick" of temporarily lifting the federal gas taxes, and argued that both ideas "would only worsen our addiction to oil and put off needed investments in clean renewable energy."

House GOP leaders tapped Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., to deliver the House Republican weekly radio address, which will blame Democrats for the soaring cost of gas.

"American families and the United States economy are being held hostage by a Democrat Congress that refuses to explore for more oil and gas," Brown-Waite is scheduled to say.

Two years ago, though, when Republicans controlled Congress, Brown-Waite was part of a united Florida delegation, firmly opposed to lifting a moratorium on drilling along the coast. During debate on the issue in May 2006, she urged her fellow lawmakers to call their mothers and grandmothers who had retired to Florida.

"I would ask you to pick up the phone and listen to what they say," she said at the time. "How much they love Florida and how much they love the beaches."

Free Catholic PDF's - Home / Parish / School / Bulletin Inserts

Also Friday, Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio made a push for McCain and Obama to debate at one of the upcoming Hispanic events they both plan to attend.

McCain has asked Obama to debate him at the National Council of La Raza meeting next month in San Diego La Raza event; Obama's campaign said on a conference call with reporters that it was talking with the McCain camp about the possibility.

___

© 2008, The Miami Herald.