Clinton pitches plans to battle rising energy prices

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton used a campaign visit to a Pennsylvania gas station on Friday to promote proposals to combat rising energy costs she says are pushing Americans into recession.

Clinton called for investment in alternative energy, higher fuel economy standards for vehicles and a one-year moratorium on additions to the nation's strategic oil reserves.

Neither rival Democrat Sen. Barack Obama nor Republican presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain have strong plans for "clean energy," Clinton said in Pennsylvania, which holds the next nominating contest on April 22 in her close race with Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"There are many places in our country, and there are many families that are already in recession. They are under so much economic stress," she said at the Curran Gulf gas station.

"I believe we are on a course that is going to worsen that economic stress," she said.

Clinton said the price of a barrel of oil has risen from about $20 a barrel to more than $110 during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush.

On Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil futures prices hit an all-time high of $111 a barrel, while U.S. average retail gasoline prices were a record of just under $3.23 a gallon, surpassing the peak hit in May 2007, travel and automobile group AAA said this week.

Bush should have put more pressure on OPEC to increase production, Clinton said. "I will not be a president who holds hands with the Saudis," she said.

The New York senator called on Bush to impose a one-year moratorium on additions to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying such a policy makes no sense in a time of high prices.

The SPR, a stockpile created by Congress in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo, holds emergency supplies of crude oil.

The Bush administration is currently adding 70,000 barrels of oil a day to the SPR, which is scheduled to hit a record volume of 700.7 million barrels by the end of the month.

Shipments to the reserves could shoot up to 125,000 barrels a day under a plan by the U.S. Energy Department that would put the government in competition with refiners for oil during the busy summer driving season.

Clinton called for an investment of $150 billion in clean energy, saying oil companies must invest in clean energy or pay a portion of their "exorbitant" profits toward research and development of such energy.

She noted Exxon Mobil Corp's recently reported profits at the highest-ever levels by a U.S. company, and she called for an end to tax breaks for oil companies.

Obama voted for a 2005 Senate bill that updated and overhauled U.S. energy policy -- a bill Clinton said she opposed because it held billions of dollars in oil and gas subsidies.

McCain has proposed to cut corporate taxes for oil companies, she said.

(Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Bill Trott)