MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, often mentioned as a potential running mate for Sen. John McCain, promoted McCain’s energy policy and critiqued his rival’s as he campaigned across Wisconsin on Monday.
Pawlenty said Democratic Sen. Barack Obama would “slam the door shut” on additional nuclear power and offshore drilling if elected president because of his conditional support for those options.
McCain’s plans to open more U.S. coastal waters to exploration for oil and gas and to add 45 nuclear power plants by 2030 would do more reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, he said.
“Sen. McCain’s proposal is bold, it’s aggressive, it’s an all of the above approach,” Pawlenty told reporters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he toured a nuclear reactor used for research. “Sen. Obama has taken a very minimalist, or none of the above, or very few of the above approaches.”