By Chris Baltimore
Reuters
Monday, April 23, 2007; 2:41 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain detailed his energy policy platform on Monday, taking swings at OPEC oil producers, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and tariffs that protect domestic ethanol producers.

The Arizona senator said that if elected, he would work to cut U.S. oil imports, which account for about 60 percent of daily usage.

"As president, I'll propose a national energy strategy that would amount to a declaration of independence from the fear bred by our reliance on oil sheiks," McCain said in remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Lashing out at OPEC, which produces about a third of the world's oil, McCain said that crude oil "availability and price are manipulated by a cartel of countries where our values aren't typically shared."

In Venezuela, also an OPEC member, President Hugo Chavez is using oil revenues to "establish a dictatorship, bully his neighbors and succeed (Cuban President Fidel) Castro as Latin America's leading antagonist of the United States," he said.

McCain's critics, including Democratic party leaders, have noted, however, that one of McCain's top campaign finance advisors, former Rep. Tom Loeffler of Texas, has lobbied for Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter and the de-facto leader of OPEC.

"John McCain can't have it both ways, hiring a lobbyist for Saudi Arabia as one of his campaign's top strategists while at the same time calling for energy independence," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda.

McCain defended Loeffler, calling him "a very respected individual." "I don't have to recite his credentials," he told reporters after the speech.

McCain said he supported using home-grown sources like corn and switchgrass to make fuel to replace foreign supplies, but said he would drop tariffs and subsidies which have kept imports in check.

Speaking to reporters following his remarks, McCain said he would let lapse a 54 cent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports which expires at the end of 2008.

"I have opposed subsidies and import tariffs and I would certainly let it drop," McCain told reporters, referring to the import tariff.

In his speech, McCain also repeated his call for the United States to cut its emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases through a cap-and-trade system.

McCain said U.S. should build more nuclear plants, which emit no greenhouse gases, after a 25-year building hiatus.

"The barriers to nuclear energy are political, not technological," and political squabbles over where to store spent radioactive fuel has "made it virtually impossible to build a single new plant," he said.

McCain said that as president, he would support efforts to make the U.S. economy more energy-efficient, from high-tech lightbulbs to space-age building materials for cars and lighter, more powerful batteries to obviate the need for crude oil to power cars.

"We need to dispel the image of conservation that entail shivering in cold rooms reading by candlelight and lower productivity," he said.