Obama calls for tapping into strategic oil reserves

(CNN) -- Barack Obama on Monday called for tapping into strategic oil reserves as part of his plan to provide relief from high gas prices.

Obama has previously said he was opposed to using the strategic reserves, but on Monday he proposed selling 70 million barrels of oil from the reserves in order to lower gas prices.

Speaking before a crowd in Lansing, Michigan, the senator from Illinois said the country's "addiction to oil ... is one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced."

Obama unveiled his energy plan, which includes a windfall profits tax on big oil corporations that would be used to provide a $1,000 rebate to people struggling with high energy costs.

"You won't hear me say this too often, but I couldn't agree more with the explanation that Sen. McCain offered a few weeks ago. He said, 'Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long term about the future of the country,' " Obama said.

"What Sen. McCain neglected to mention was that during those 30 years, he was in Washington for 26 of them. And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," Obama said.

The Democratic presidential candidate said he wants to eliminate the need for oil from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years.

"To do this, we will invest $150 billion over the next decade ... and leverage billions more in private capital to build a new energy economy that harnesses American energy and creates 5 million new American jobs," he said.

Obama outlined three steps he'd take to meet that goal:


Build fuel-efficient cars and have one million 150 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on the roads within six years


Require that 10 percent of the country's energy come from renewable sources by the end of his first term


Call on businesses, government and the American people to meet the goal of reducing the demand for electricity 15 percent by the end of the next decade.

"So there is a real choice in this election -- a choice about what kind of future we want for this country and this planet," Obama said.

McCain on Monday said Obama's "misguided policies would result in higher energy costs to American families and businesses and increase dependence on foreign oil."

One of the differences between McCain and Obama on energy is that McCain is in favor of exploring options for offshore drilling.