ELKHART, Ind., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Terrorism, climate change and a slumping economy present the United States with a huge set of challenges, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said Tuesday.
Calling the November election "the most important of our lifetime," Obama told a crowd in Elkhart, Ind., key to each issue "is the question of what we will do about our addiction to foreign oil."
Reliance on foreign oil "is one of the most urgent threats we've ever faced," the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said, from rising gas costs, to lost jobs, from instability and terror in the Middle East to global warming.
Obama reiterated that his energy policy goals are to wean the United States off foreign oil, promote alternative energy sources and help auto companies produce more fuel-efficient vehicles, among other things.
"And I will say that achieving them is absolutely necessary if we want to keep America safe and prosperous in the 21st century," he said. "It's necessary if we want our families to thrive again -- to have good jobs with good wages that let them get ahead again."
