SANTA BARBARA, CA - McCain’s energy initiatives faced some skepticism during his two-day trip to the birthplace of the modern environmental movement.

During a roundtable with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former CIA Director James Woolsey and two local environmental experts, McCain’s proposal to expand the use of nuclear power and offshore oil drilling came under attack from a fellow panelist.

“I don’t understand how it’s not compromising our environmental standards to propose a crash program to build more nuclear power plants when the industry has not complied with the federal law that requires there to be safe disposal for the radioactive waste,” said Michael Feeney, the executive director of the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County. “There is no solution to that problem, and that’s a big stumbling block for me to a rapid expansion of nuclear energy.”

Feeney didn’t stop there, adding that he was also doubtful about offshore drilling. “It makes me nervous to think about those who are proposing to drain America’s off-shore oil and gas reserves as quickly as possible in the hopes of driving down the price of gasoline,” Feeney said “I think when you look at the good sources of information, were we to open up the California coast or the Alaska natural wildlife refuge to drilling, it would be twelve, 15 maybe 20 years before those resources came online and got to full production.”

The event, at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, took place a few miles from the site of a 1969 oil spill created by an offshore rig that eventually spilt 3 million gallons of oil off of the Santa Barbara coast.

McCain only pushed back on Feeney’s criticism of nuclear power, suggesting that the local director look across the Atlantic for progress in dealing with spent fuel.

“My friend, the technology is there. The Europeans do it. I mean it’s safe. It’s being done,” McCain said to applause. “They are doing fine…you should visit their reprocessing facility which they have been doing for many, many years without any accident or difficulties or problems and they are meeting closer to the Kyoto requirements of their greenhouse gas emissions, closer than just about anybody else.”

Feeney quickly backed down, noting that he was “not familiar with exactly how they’re dealing with the nuclear waste in a successful way in Europe,” but added, “we are not dealing with it in as successful way in the United States at this point. I know that.”

The exchange comes one day after a donor at McCain’s Monday night fundraiser also expressed skepticism about McCain’s recent reversal on offshore oil drilling.

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