AGINAW, Mich. - George W. Bush yesterday proposed opening 1.5 million acres of the Alaska wilderness to oil exploration, which he said would reduce reliance on imported crude but which Al Gore decried as a ''false and outdated choice.''
The Republican presidential nominee, speaking at a manufacturing and engineering plant in the battleground state of Michigan, blamed high home heating oil and gasoline prices on a lack of energy policy from the White House.
''This administration tries to take credit for our economy, but they seem to have forgotten what makes it run. Even today, in our new high-tech economy, America runs on oil and gas and coal gained from the earth, and water, behind our dams,'' Bush said.
The Texas governor, a former oilman, proposed opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, which experts estimate could yield up to 16 billion barrels of oil.
He said the Energy Department should determine whether other restricted lands could be explored, and the federal government should streamline its permitting process to allow for more refineries.
In addition, Bush's energy plan calls for tax credits for research into fuel efficient technologies, cleaner-burning fuel plants, and federal subsidies to help the poor pay their heating bills.
Engaging Bush for a second day on the same issue, Gore rearranged his schedule to travel to the 40-acre wooded headquarters of the Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Chase, Md., and speak on an area of expertise, the environment.
''The other side now proposes to misuse high oil prices as an excuse to let oil companies invade precious natural treasures like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. If you entrust me with the presidency, I will not let that happen,'' the vice president declared.
As he did a day earlier contrasting his plan to pay off the national debt with Bush's proposal for a $1.3 trillion tax cut, Gore cast himself as the presidential candidate willing to make hard choices.
He said the government should support research into fuel efficient cars that can get as many as 80 miles a gallon. He urged investments in light rail and mass transit. He urged a weaning from the use of foreign oil, which he labeled ''a fuel source that is distant, uncertain, and too easily manipulated.''
Gore added, ''The hard right is always better than the easy wrong. And when it comes to energy and the environment, the hard, right choice means not just opening up our environmental treasures for exploitation by oil companies.''
The energy debate is a precarious one for both candidates.
Gore is part of an administration that now presides over the highest crude oil prices in a decade. Home heating stockpiles are low and gasoline is as expensive as it was during the Persian Gulf War.
Bush cites a statement made by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who said the administration was ''caught napping.'' The governor told his Michigan audience: ''That is a good description, and it's taken an election to wake them up.''
Bush's oil past, however, opens him up to criticism, as does his choice of Dick Cheney as a running mate. The former head of the Halliburton Co., a Dallas energy services company, Cheney was previously quoted as noting the benefit of high prices for oil producers.
The Gore campaign calls the pair the ''Big Oil ticket,'' and rails against oil-company profits.
One flashpoint yesterday for Bush and Gore was the administration's recent decision to tap 30 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an oil stockpile in Texas and Louisiana, in an effort to lower crude prices and increase home heating stockpiles.
''Every barrel of strategic reserve we release today for political reasons is one less barrel we have for threats to our national security,'' Bush said. ''The strategic reserve is meant for a foreign war or a major disruption in supply, not for political elections. It's a petroleum reserve, not a political reserve.''
Gore noted that he had been criticized for the decision, but he wore it as a badge of honor.
''Oil prices in the last week have fallen by $6 a barrel, about 20 percent. And the economic ministers of the G-7, the world's major industrial nations, have formally welcomed this policy for its contribution to the stability of the global economy,'' the vice president said.
Today, Bush and Gore are preparing for their first debate, to be held Tuesday at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
The vice president is flying to Florida, where he will engage in practice sessions with a former Clinton adviser, Paul Begala. Bush is at his ranch outside Waco, Texas, squaring off against his Gore stand-in, US Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire.
Anne E. Kornblut, traveling with Bush, reported from Michigan; Glen Johnson, traveling with Gore, reported from Washington.
