oilwellSo, who said:

With $55 oil we don’t need incentives to oil and gas companies to explore. There are plenty of incentives.

Yes, that would be our president, three years ago. And yet with oil at nearly twice that price, Bush still refuses to cut subsidies and shift that money to clean technologies. And he still claims that the solution to our energy and climate problems is “technology, technology, technology, blah, blah.” But, as we’ve seen, that is all just rhetoric or sleight of hand.

Daniel J. Weiss, Director of Energy Strategy at the Center for American Progress, has an article on the urgent need for this switch in priorities: “Unbearable cost of oil: Record prices require Senate action.” As Weiss points out, this will be one more chance for McCain to do the right thing:

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

On December 13, this effort to adopt a clean energy tax package failed by 59-40, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) absent. His vote could have made the difference. His spokesperson said that “he would not have supported breaking the filibuster.” In other words, he would have voted against renewable energy and for Big Oil.

Let’s see if McCain backs Big Oil again.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.