Obama’s new Energy Plan is an Ace – Joe Romm & T-Boone are already on-board. It took awhile, but I’d say it’s about 3 giant steps forward – with a political brain installed while the plan was in the shop. Easiest perhaps just to compare this Plan to the one in June. There are substantive upgrades – but also, it’s reordered smartly, the examples are better, the timelines more immediate. For example, the June Plan led with “Implement A 100% Cap & Trade Program To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” Which I happen to agree is needed - but ouch, definitely not too sexy for prime-time. The new one leads with “Short-Term Solutions: Immediate Relief From Pain At The Pumps.” Better, eh?

What’s the Short-Term Plan? Well, not perfect – but it’s not like there’s the $500 billion extra in the Federal coffers we’d need to take pump prices back to 1990’s levels. Anyway, Obama’s now offering: 1) $1000 rebates for families, paid for from excess oilco profits; 2) A crackdown on oil speculators (which is probably worth doing); and, 3) Releasing light/sweet oil from the Strategic Reserve. In sum, Obama’s got something to offer people NOW – and those somethings aren’t shared with McCain. Most useful, over time it’s going to become clear there ISN’T short-term relief from offshore drilling – while his $1,000 is gonna help a lot of families at the edge. Also interesting is that Obama’s tax on excess oilco profits to be spent on low income families is so similar to Blair’s New Deal jobs for Inner City youth, funded by excess profits from the privatized utilities.

What’s Obama’s big target now - the National Goal? To replace our need for Middle Eastern (and Venezuelan) oil within 10 years. This is one hell of a lot politically sharper than reducing our oil usage by 35% by 2030 (the former plan.) He even talks about increasing new domestic sources of oil. Most amusing to to those of you who have heard me rant on this is that the 1st site Obama now mentions is… the Bakken Field in Montana & North Dakota. Offshore’s not played up, but by naming the states where he supports more drilling, politically he can now customize & target his pitch.

I gotta say, I had a 2nd big smile on cars. He made the speech in Michigan, targeted 5 million Green Jobs (Michigan has 50,000 already), and then pumped up the volume on those 150 MPG Plug-In Hybrids (PHEV’s) you may have already seen on the roads (we’ve got 2 here in town.) Obama wants 1 million plug-in’s on the road by 2015, supports $4 billion investment for the automakers to retool, has $7,000 incentives for buyers who want them, and highlights GM/Chevy’s own Volt Plug-In. Also useful for Obama (he of “little legislation), he actually put forward serious legislation on plug-in’s early last year. On electricity, the target improved from 25% new renewables by 2025 to 10% by 2012. He’s set a good target of 15% energy efficiency by 2020, and tucked in a very practical, positive move (3rd big smile), to weatherize 1 million low-income homes a year – while nukes & clean coal got downplayed.

Winners? Autoworkers in Michigan, everyone in North Dakota & Montana, low-income homes & families on tight budgets, farmers with oil beneath or wind above their land, GM and all those Danish/German/Spanish wind turbine manufacturers setting up shop. Enemies list? Exxon and co., McCain and OPEC – put together in a nice mash-up.

His speech moved the same way.  T-Boone was quoted & his $700 billion annual cost figure cited, then both thrown straight at McCain’s “drill our way to freedom” pitch. Long-term, the right issue – rising demand from China & India – was named. The new tools we need were no longer relegated to R&D status, or referred to as “alternatives” – rather,  they’re here, the jobs are now, let’s get with it.

Now, all that remains is for his PR staff to find their way over to that Media Curves site, www.mediacurves.com, and compare T-Boone's ad (see under Advertising section) versus the last 2 ads Obama’s campaign have put out on energy (in the Politics section.) T-Boone’s ad shoots off the charts in terms of support (82% and up), with Democrats liking them best of all (92%) - while Obama's barely break-even. So…. A+ for the ad…. A for the Speech…. And D- for the Ads. It’s a start.