Clinton pitches plans to battle rising energy prices

By Jon Hurdle

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.