Hannity: Senator, I know because everywhere I go, people talk to me about the high price of gasoline and the impact that it’s having on their lives, the economy. Most Americans are angry when they find out that we have more resources here in the United States that we’re not tapping into. I’ve even argued that we have a clear and present danger facing the United States, the possibility of an energy war. Am I overstating the case?
McCain: No. We’re sending $700 billion a year overseas to countries that don’t like us very much. Some of that money ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations. It’s one of the greatest transfers in wealth in history and I think you are exactly right on the mark when you say that Americans are starting to figure things out. Of course we have to drill offshore. Of course we have to exploit every means we have of bridging this gap while we make the transition to energy independence. I viewed a new automobile the other day, the Volt. I pray it succeeds. It could revolutionize the auto industry and I also want to mention that we all love wind, tide, solar, all of that, nuclear power…nuclear power. The French can build a nuclear power plant in five years. We should build 45 nuclear power plants by 2030 and that will create 700,000 new jobs and it’s clean.
Sen. Obama opposes offshore drilling. He opposes nuclear. He opposes a gas tax holiday. He opposes giving an award for a real battery-driven car. So he, uh…
Hannity: And coal.
McCain: And coal. And we’ve got to invest $2 billion a year in peer research and development, in clean coal technology. We are sitting on the world’s largest supply of energy in the form of coal reserves. We’ve got to have clean coal technology.
Hannity: You have come under some scrutiny and criticism because you changed your position on offshore drilling and my question for you is “Would you consider your position on ANWR. There’s nothing there. Of the 19,000,000 acres, they’d only use 2,000 acres. Do you think you’d reconsider in light of the high price of gas?
McCain: Listen, I will look at everything. I still don’t believe…it’s called the National Wildlife Refuge. But on the offshore drilling, it’s always left up to the states and it is left up to the states. But it’s also important to recognize the price of a barrel of oil. You know, when President Bush made the announcement that we were going to lift the federal moratorium, which wasn’t that big a deal, the price of a barrel of oil dropped $10 a gallon…
Hannity: a barrel…
McCain: And the people that said that we couldn’t affect the price of a barrel of oil were wrong because we tell the world that we’re going to have our own reserves and we’re not going to be dependent as we make this transition to independence, that it will matter in the price of a barrel of oil is concerned, my friend. And I’m confident that…as oil executives say, and I hope you have them on your program sometime, or an expert; they’re telling me that we could get some of this oil within a year or 2. It’s not this 10 year…
Hannity: Two years Outer Continental Shelf, 86,000,000,000 barrels of oil are available there. You know, this has got to be a defining issue. You’re for nuclear power, Barack Obama’s against it. You’re for the suspension of the gas tax, he’s against it. You’re for offshore, he’s against that. You’re for expanding coal mining, he’s against that. These are major differences in the campaign.
McCain: These are major differences and I think…I would love for you to sometime come to a townhall meeting with me as I just had. When you say to an audience “I think we have to drill offshore and exploit our resources, they stand and applaud. They get it.
The American people, sometimes we don’t give them enough credit that they deserve for knowing what’s going on. They know we have to be independent of foreign oil. They know that we need to go to nuclear power. They know these things and they care and it matters.

That transcript is a little over half of the energy portion of the interview. I watched it last night. I loved the vast majority of the answers Sen. McCain gave. I’ll readily admit tht he breezed past the ANWR question, which he could’ve addressed more directly. I’m still not a fan of the gas tax holiday and never will be.

I hope that Hannity has some experts on his radio and TV programs that will talk about the technology that they’re using and how that speeds up how fast they can go from exploration to production. If these experts speak out, it’s certain that Democrats would tell the world that they’re shills, that they can’t be trusted because they work for evil ‘Big Oil’, etc. That video, though, would get bounced all over the internet. The American people would decide for themselves whether the experts are credible.

That’s the Democrats’ worst nightmare. It’d destroy their biggest argument against drilling. Once that argument is obliterated, it’s ‘Katie-bar-the-door’ time because the Democrats’ credibility on the biggest domestic issue this election will be nonexistent.

It’s time that we all emailed Sen. McCain and told him that he needs to speak this strongly and this clearly on this issue every day the rest of this campaign. If he does, I’ll bet big money that he’ll fire up the GOP base in a big way. That’s because we have a clear advantage over the Democrats on this issue. It’s the issue that the American people agree with us in overwhelming numbers.

Let’s not forget how this contrast plays out with blue collar workers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and elsewhere. Let’s also view this in the context of whose judgment the American people will trust more in on this issue and on national security. If Sen. McCain spotlights his policies and his judgment on those two issues, Sen. Obama will have a difficult time winning.

When we look back from Election Night, I wouldn’t be surprised if we view this as one of the highlights in Sen. McCain’s campaign.

Technorati Tags: Gas Crisis, John McCain, Sean Hannity, Energy Policy, Clean Coal Technology, OCS, Nuclear Power, The Volt, Research and Development, ANWR, Barack Obama, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog