| August 4, 2008 Obama and McCain address growing energy crisis
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(Prat Thakkar, NECN) - The presidential candidates are ratcheting up their efforts to deal with nation's growing energy crisis. For Barack Obama that means reversing course on offshore drilling, and tapping into nation's strategic oil reserve.
That grim prediction comes by way of a new University of Massachusetts report released Monday, that looks at heating oil and natural gas prices for Bay State homeowners this winter and next year.
According to the report, Massachusetts residents using heating oil or natural gas will pay $1 billion more in heating costs this year than in 2007... and their costs are likely to go up an additional 469 million dollars in 2009... Michael Goodman is a co-author of the report.
According to the study, the average Bay State oil bill in 2009 could be more than 3000 dollars a household... Homeowners using natural gas could see 15.6 percent increase from 2008 to 2009...
As consumers grapple with the chilling news, on the campaign trail presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain were both talking offshore drilling... campaigning in Pennsylvania, Senator McCain reiterated his call for drilling...
Obama has repeatedly opposed offshore drilling in the past... but monday while delivering an energy plan speech in michigan he said he would support drilling as a partial, short term solution... it's a position he first voiced last week... Obama also called for drawing from the strategic petroleum reserve... Another
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