What are the elements of the national energy policy you would present to Congress and the American public?
McCain: My energy plan–the Lexington Project– calls for an all-of-the-above approach to increasing America’s energy supply and lowering the price of energy for American families. First, Congress must lift the ban on offshore drilling, empowering states to determine whether to tap the oil and natural gas reserves off their coasts. In the near term, it is vitally important that we maximize our domestic energy supplies in order to break our dependence on foreign oil. The technology exists to drill off our shores in an environmentally responsible manner, and we ought to do so. We also must expand the use of carbon-free nuclear energy. Nuclear energy now produces 20 percent of our electricity, but the United States has not started construction on a new nuclear power plant in more than 30 years. China, India and Russia have goals of building a combined total of more than 100 new plants, and we should be able to do the same. I will put my administration on track to construct 45 new nuclear po
