Obama fires back at GOP
Posted: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 5:59 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli and NBC's Mark Murray
BEREA, OH -- For the last few days, Republicans have ridiculed Obama for saying -- in passing -- that if drivers inflated their tires to proper levels, they'd save as much oil as offshore drilling would produce. The Republican National Committee even sent tire gauges to political reporters to continue to mock Obama on the subject.
At a town hall here today, Obama recalled his initial exchange when an audience member asked for something simple people could do to save energy. “So I told them something simple,” he said. “If everybody in America inflated their tires to the proper level, we would actually probably save more oil than all the oil that we'd get from John McCain drilling right below his feet.”
He acknowledged that Republicans are now mocking his idea.
“This is the kind of thing they do,” he said. “They know they're lying about what my energy plan is. But the other thing is they're making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by three to four percent. It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.”Indeed, Time magazine writes that Obama is correct here. "But who's really out of touch? The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points. In other words: Obama is right."
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http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/08/05/1248805.aspx
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