Tonight, President Obama will be addressing the nation about the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.  This morning, Alexi announced his New Energy agenda, which he believe offers the common sense steps we must take to break our addiction to oil and create a new clean energy economy.

Alexi’s agenda starts with the most pressing matter facing us today – cleaning up the spill in the Gulf and ensuring that this never happens again.  

That’s why Alexi’s plan starts by suggesting safeguards that must be immediately implemented to prevent another spill.  

We’ve all heard disturbing reports that the MMS (Minerals and Management Service) officials granted hundreds of drilling permits before environmental reviews were conducted, allowed oil companies to fill out their own safety inspection forms and accepted gifts from oil company lobbyists.

Alexi fully supports proposals to split the MMS into two agencies – one to inspect oil rigs and enforce safety and another to oversee leases for drilling and collect royalties – removing the conflict of interest and incentives for corruption.

He is also calling for a 6-month moratorium on all new off-shore drilling permits.  During that time, the federal government must establish new, permanent protection zones for the most fragile sections of our coast and enable states to veto new offshore drilling permits in their waters.

The second part of Alexi’s proposal involves the costs associated with the spill. We must ensure BP pays for the cleanup and all legitimate claims. We also must raise the liability cap from 75 million dollars to 10 billion dollars and do whatever we can to avoid families and businesses not getting their legitimate claims filled.

While these two parts deal with the current crisis, we must also exercise the leadership to change the disastrous course that we’re currently on. That’s why Alexi wants to reduce America’s addiction to oil – not just for our environment, but for our economy and our national security.

Alexi believes we should start by increasing fuel efficiency standard and ending unnecessary subsidies to big oil companies. Eliminating these unneeded tax deductions, preferences and credits would save the federal government $45 billion over the next 10 years, and would force oil companies to play by the same rules as everyone else.

He also wants to create a market-based system that puts a real price on the cost of global warming pollution. This free market approach will create the necessary incentives for private sector investment in clean energy technology, and spur entirely new sectors and clean energy jobs.  Alexi knows that these are not jobs that can be outsourced – they’re the good-paying jobs of tomorrow that we so desperately need right here in Illinois.

There is a big difference between Alexi and his opponent on these issues.  Congressman Kirk has said he will vote against a clean energy bill in the Senate.  It’s no wonder – he’s taken millions in contributions from corporate America and has consistently voted their way.  That’s not the type of leadership that the people of Illinois want or deserve.