Obama Pushes for Cleaner Air and Less Foreign Oil Dependency

Illinois Senator and African American presidential hopeful Barack Obama and former US Vice President Al Gore seem to have quite a bit in common, especially when it comes to a cleaner environment and less of a dependency on foreign oil. Barack Obama harshly criticized American auto makers today for doing too little to help lower the country's dependency on foreign oil. He said that the United States needs to adopt an energy plan that is much more aggressive than the current one. Al Gore spent quite a lot of time helping to promote a cleaner environment in his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", which won several awards.

His speech hit the faults of Detroit, Michigan auto companies and praised the Japanese companies that are doing much better in the United States. The Japanese and other foreign auto companies have developed much more energy efficient cars and other vehicles, and American automakers desperately need to do the same. He also stated that American auto companies need to update and get to the technological advances that overseas auto makers have gotten to. Obama proposed stricter fuel standards in the US. He also hopes to debate the topic with other candidates. He hopes that a new energy policy will push the current 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 24 miles per gallon for lighter trucks and SUVs.

Obama also told the sold-out crowd at the Economic Club of Detroit: "For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars...and whenever an attempt was made to raise our fuel efficiency standards, the auto companies would lobby furiously against it, spending millions to prevent the very reform that could've saved their industry."

Obama also proposed tax breaks to those who buy hybrid or extremely fuel efficient vehicles. His proposals could save the United States up to 2.5 billion barrels of oil a day. It would also remove 50 million cars' worth of nationwide pollution from streets and roads all over the country.