GOP's McCain Calls For Energy Independence By 2025

"America's dependence on foreign oil was a troubling situation 35 years ago. It was an alarming situation 20 years ago. It is a dangerous situation today," he said in Las Vegas.

"And starting in the term of the next president, we must take control over our own energy future and become once again the master of our fate."

As soaring gasoline prices hit U.S. consumers hard, energy has become a major issue in the battle between McCain and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, for the presidency.

McCain has dedicated a series of recent campaign speeches to energy and said Wednesday his plans would form part of a "Lexington Project," in reference to one of the first battles in 1775 of the Revolutionary War.

"In recent days I have set before the American people an energy plan, the Lexington Project - named for the town where Americans asserted their independence once before," he said.

"And let it begin today with this commitment: in a world of hostile and unstable suppliers of oil, this nation will achieve strategic independence by 2025."

McCain has pledged notably to lift an offshore drilling ban for oil and build 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030.