Sen. Hillary Clinton on Friday renewed her attack on oil company profits and accused Sen. Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, of supporting tax breaks for oil companies.
Speaking at a campaign rally for about 2,000 supporters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Clinton said both Obama and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain had voted for a bill to cut oil company taxes.
"They voted yes to more giveaways to the oil companies," she said during a 40-minute speech.
Citing Exxon Mobil Corp's latest annual profit of $40 billion, Clinton said that as president, she would require oil companies to invest in alternative forms of energy or else be subject to a windfall profits tax.
She pledged to set up a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund to develop non-fossil fuel energy sources, and would pay for it by ending tax subsidies that she said have been enjoyed by oil companies during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush.
The search for clean, renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar should be a high priority for the new U.S. administration, she said.
"We have to have the same commitment to the energy race as we had to the space race," she said.
Development of alternative energy sources and the promotion of energy independence could generate 5 million new jobs in the next 10 years, she added.
ECONOMY 'IN TROUBLE'
Earlier in the day, during a visit to a Pennsylvania gas station, Clinton also called for higher fuel economy standards for vehicles and a one-year moratorium on additions to the nation's strategic oil reserves.
Clinton told the rally audience the U.S. economy is "in trouble" and she accused Bush, who acknowledged current economic strains in a speech in New York on Friday, of being too late to recognize the economy's problems and of being willing to do "very little" about it.
With oil at around $110 a barrel, she said Bush had failed to negotiate lower prices with major producers such as Saudi Arabia.
"You will not catch me as your president holding hands with the Saudis," she said. "I will be holding them accountable."
On Iraq, she repeated that as president, she would begin to withdraw U.S. troops "responsibly and safely" within 60 days of taking office.
"It's time for the Iraqis to understand that there is no military solution," Clinton said.
Audience member Lindsey Davis, 26, said before the speech she hadn't made up her mind whether to vote for Clinton or Obama, and was looking forward to hearing Clinton's views on the economy, the war, and gay rights.
But Joe Kleppick, a 21-year-old supermarket clerk, said he had switched his allegiance from Obama to Clinton because she has a policy on people with disabilities, which he said Obama lacks.
Obama's office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Clinton's remarks.
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