Udall Responds to Energy Dumb Challenge from Hillary Clinton

[This is a guest post from "Energy Smart" blogger, A. Siegel. See http://EnergySmart.wordpress.com and http://a-siegel.dailykos.com for more of Siegel's excellent work.]

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton directly challenged Congressional members to go on the record either for her idiocy of a gas tax moratorium or against it (supposedly, therefore, for oil companies). Coloradan Senate candidate Mark Udall responded forcefully.

Senator Clinton claimed yesterday that I either stand with her on this proposal or stand with the oil companies. To that I say: I stand with the families of Colorado, who aren't looking for bumper sticker fixes that don't fix anything, but for meaningful change that brings real relief and a new direction for our energy policy. We can't afford more Washington-style pandering while families keep getting squeezed.

Hillary Clinton: Energy Dumb. Mark Udall: Energy Smart.

Udall's full statement

"There is no issue I have spent more time on in my public service
career than working for real, responsible change in our energy policy
– the kind that breaks our addiction to foreign oil and puts us on a
path to greater national security, a stronger economy, and lower
energy costs for our families. There is certainly no question that
families are hurting with the soaring cost of energy and need relief.

Udall is someone who understands and cares about energy issues. He is a leading light on this in the House and soon will be in the Senate. And, he is right. We need to develop and pursue a win-win-win policy to end the 'oil addiction' for these great reasons with the corollary benefit of turning the tide on that pesky problem of Global Warming.

"The so-called 'temporary gas tax holiday' that Senators Clinton and McCain propose won't deliver this needed relief. This will not create the economic relief they say it will, because prices will continue to rise until we address the real source of this problem. We do need to provide immediate relief for families hard-hit by spiraling gas prices, and we can do that by demanding the President stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This will ease the production crunch that is causing these skyrocketing gas prices.

No, the 'temporary gas tax holiday' doesn't achieve much of anything, does it, except pander to the worst nature of democracy. Hillary Clinton: Are you planning other bread and circus stunts?

"Senator Clinton claimed yesterday that I either stand with her on this proposal or stand with the oil companies. To that I say: I stand with the families of Colorado, who aren't looking for bumper sticker fixes that don't fix anything, but for meaningful change that brings real relief and a new direction for our energy policy. We can't afford more Washington-style pandering while families keep getting squeezed.

Real solutions rather than tactical pandering.

"It is exactly the kind of short-sighted Washington game that keeps us from getting real results to our energy problem. Experts across the ideological spectrum agree that it will increase the deficit, drain money away from Colorado roads and bridges, and hurt the environment, all without actually making prices lower for drivers."

No one, and we do mean no one, who knows these issues and is being honest is supportive of a gas tax moratorium. Presidential Clinton's pandering is undercutting the potential for long-term solutions.

It is with an asterisk. Maybe. Just Maybe.

* Hopefully, it will lead others like Mark Udall to seize the occasion to stand forcefully for sensible energy policy.

Perhaps the nation will rally to the banner of real solutions.

A banner carried by real leaders like Mark Udall.

NOTE: Others across the blogosphere are speaking up with similar terms. David Sirota wrote Udall Takes Up the Challenge and Shows How It's Done:

Udall, in other words, is taking a side. He had to choose between taking the side of Clinton panderers and the oil industry in his state, or taking the side of the rest of his state's population that has been suffering through crappy infrastructure thanks to Republican policies. He chose the side of the people.

Note from WattHead blogmaster, Jesse Jenkins: Mark Udall isn't the only one calling Clinton out for her so-Energy-Dumb-it-hurts advocacy of a gas tax "holiday." In fact, Huffington Post and the Washington Post both did some digging to find an energy policy or economics expert that would support Hillary Clinton or John McCain's advocacy of a gas tax holiday. What did they find? Zilch. Nada. Clinton and McCain are so Energy Dumb and Dumber on this, not a single expert wants to back them. Ouch.

See, also, Joe Romm at Climate Progress: Gas tax holiday, Part 3: It is cynical and indefensible no matter who proposes it.

Finally, to his strong credit, Senator Barack Obama is also Energy Smart on this issue! He made this direct response to Clinton's ads blatently and desperately pandering for votes with empty gas tax holiday promises airing now in the remaining primary states:



Bravo to Obama for taking the right stand! Even more so for taking the right stand even though it may cost him votes.

I have yet to be particularly partisan in this race, calling both Obama and Clinton out for supporting new uses of coal. That ends today. Sorry Clinton, this is just plain indefensible! You've definitely lost the vote of this Oregon primary voter.