With polls showing concern over gas prices a prime concern of Americans, Obama has been depicting energy as the nation's most pressing national security and economic issue. In that effort, he criticizes Republican rival John McCain as more concerned about oil company profits and drilling than an overall energy strategy.
"McCain has taken a page out of the Cheney playbook," the Democratic presidential candidate said as he stumped in this key battleground state.
Among other things, Obama has proposed a $1,000-per family energy rebate to be paid for by a tax on excessive energy-company profits. He called for ending U.S. reliance on oil from the Middle East and Venezuela over the next 10 years, a project he said would cost the U.S. $150 billion.
Obama has also proposed borrowing oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, a conditional and limited resumption of offshore drilling, and a new emphasis on alternative energy sources and hybrid vehicles.
"Our economy is in turmoil, I don't have to tell the people of Youngstown," Obama told a high-school gymnasium audience in this rust-belt city. "People here have known some hard knocks and hard times."
Ohio is a bellwether state, having voted for the winning candidate in all 11 presidential elections since 1964, including handing President Bush a close re-election victory in 2004.
Cheney, a former oilman, early in the Bush administration helped draft an energy policy that Obama asserted is biased in favor of tax breaks and favorable treatment for big oil. It was an attempt to capitalize on Cheney's unpopularity.
"President Bush, he had an energy policy. He turned to Dick Cheney and he said, 'Cheney, go take care of this,'" Obama said. "Cheney met with renewable-energy folks once and oil and gas (executives) 40 times. McCain has taken a page out of the Cheney playbook."
It was Obama's second day on a tour featuring a stepped-up emphasis on energy and harsher criticism of McCain.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
