While campaigning in different cities Monday, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama managed to trade plenty of jabs on energy policy. At a rally in Raleigh, N.C., Obama called for a tax on oil-company windfall profits and declared, “At a time … when we’re paying more than $4 a gallon for gas, [McCain] wants to spend $1.2 billion on a tax break for ExxonMobil.” McCain’s economic adviser responded that the GOP candidate supports an “across-the-board corporate rate cut that’s necessary to keep the American corporate sector competitive in the global economy.” Obama also dismissed the idea of a gas-tax holiday as a gimmick, and continued to tout his vision of a green-job-driven economy, making no mention of nuclear power. McCain, at a fundraiser in Richmond, Va., reiterated his support for the gas-tax holiday; when a donor summarized his energy policy as “nuclear, and drill wherever we’ve got it,” McCain replied, “You just gave my speech.”
