Posted by Jed Lewison on Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 5:10 PM Pacific

John McCain's Confusing Energy Plan Timeline

This was probably the silliest line from John McCain's "major" energy speech here in Las Vegas today:

Since I am not president, I cannot say the buck stops here -- but I will say that it must stop now.

Tough talk, eh?

As for the speech itself, he didn't offer anything new other than a name for his plan "Lexington Plan" or somesuch and a timeline for achieving what he calls "strategic independence" from foreign oil.

In a world of hostile and unstable suppliers of oil, this nation will achieve strategic independence by 2025.

Keep that target date -- 2025 -- in mind when you read this next sentence from the speech, a rehash of one of McCain's longstanding proposals:

If I am elected president, I will set this nation on a course to building 45 new reactors by the year 2030.

Okay, so 45 new nuke reactors by 2030. But his plan will achieve independence by 2025. Help me out with the math here. 2030 comes after 2025, right? Is he already announcing a five year delay? Or is his plan just terribly confused?

Update: I posted video of this here.