PRESIDENT Barack Obama is calling for the United States to reduce its oil imports by one third by 2025.
Facing pressure to curb rising fuel prices, President Obama outlined the lofty but difficult goal.
The White House said Obama will seek to reduce the US dependence on foreign oil by boosting domestic energy production, increasing the use of biofuels and natural gas, and making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient.
In a speech in New York City, the President pointed to rising petrol prices to underscore the need for a comprehensive energy plan.
"We've still got a lot of work to do on energy," the president told an audience of donors at The Studio Museum in Harlem. "The last time gas prices were this high was 2008 when I was running."
Obama contrasted his approach to an energy slogan popular among Republicans.
"The other side kept talking about 'drill, baby, drill.' That was the slogan," he said. "What we were talking about was breaking the pattern of being shocked by high prices" and then lulled into inaction.
Obama is far from the first president to set out to make the country energy independent. US presidents dating back to Richard Nixon had similar goals that achieved little success; the nation continues to be the world's top oil consumer and gets more than 60 percent of its oil from foreign sources.
Still, the White House is eager to show that the president understands the burden rising prices have on middle-class Americans, particularly as his re-election bid draws near. Gas prices have jumped this year, due in part to a spike in oil prices amid instability in the oil-rich Middle East.
Even if US consumption of oil drops, it will have little if any impact on prices, since oil is priced globally and increased demand from China and other developing nations continues to push prices up.
Republicans put the blame for the increased costs on Obama's policies, pointing to the slow pace of issuing permits for new offshore oil wells in the wake of last summer's massive Gulf of Mexico spill and an Obama-imposed moratorium on new deep-water exploration. GOP leaders have also assailed the president for saying last week in Latin America that he wanted the U.S. to be a "major customer" for the huge oil reserves Brazil recently discovered off its coast.
"Here we've got the administration looking for just about any excuse it can find to lock up our own energy sources here at home, even as it's applauding another country's efforts to grow its own economy and create jobs by tapping into its own energy sources," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
In order to meet his goal of cutting oil imports by one third, Obama will call for new incentives for companies to speed up oil and gas production on current and future leases. An Interior Department report said more than two-thirds of offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico are sitting idle, neither producing oil and gas nor being actively explored by the companies who hold the leases. The department said those leases could potentially hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The President will also call for increased use of biofuels and the construction of four new advanced biofuel plants in the US within the next two year. However, advanced biofuels - fuels made from non-food sources such as wood chips, switch grass or plant waste - are still in their infancy and cannot yet be made in amounts similar to corn ethanol. Congress has directed more money to research and development of those fuels in recent years as some critics of corn ethanol have linked the diversion of corn for fuel to rising food prices.
The president is also planning to order government agencies to ensure that by 2015, all new vehicles they purchase are alternative-fuel vehicles, including hybrid and electric. Obama has previously set a goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on roads by 2015.
Administration officials said Obama's plans would require significant spending on research and development, though they offered no cost estimates.
news.com
Facing pressure to curb rising fuel prices, President Obama outlined the lofty but difficult goal.
The White House said Obama will seek to reduce the US dependence on foreign oil by boosting domestic energy production, increasing the use of biofuels and natural gas, and making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient.
In a speech in New York City, the President pointed to rising petrol prices to underscore the need for a comprehensive energy plan.
"We've still got a lot of work to do on energy," the president told an audience of donors at The Studio Museum in Harlem. "The last time gas prices were this high was 2008 when I was running."
Obama contrasted his approach to an energy slogan popular among Republicans.
"The other side kept talking about 'drill, baby, drill.' That was the slogan," he said. "What we were talking about was breaking the pattern of being shocked by high prices" and then lulled into inaction.
Obama is far from the first president to set out to make the country energy independent. US presidents dating back to Richard Nixon had similar goals that achieved little success; the nation continues to be the world's top oil consumer and gets more than 60 percent of its oil from foreign sources.
Still, the White House is eager to show that the president understands the burden rising prices have on middle-class Americans, particularly as his re-election bid draws near. Gas prices have jumped this year, due in part to a spike in oil prices amid instability in the oil-rich Middle East.
Even if US consumption of oil drops, it will have little if any impact on prices, since oil is priced globally and increased demand from China and other developing nations continues to push prices up.
Republicans put the blame for the increased costs on Obama's policies, pointing to the slow pace of issuing permits for new offshore oil wells in the wake of last summer's massive Gulf of Mexico spill and an Obama-imposed moratorium on new deep-water exploration. GOP leaders have also assailed the president for saying last week in Latin America that he wanted the U.S. to be a "major customer" for the huge oil reserves Brazil recently discovered off its coast.
"Here we've got the administration looking for just about any excuse it can find to lock up our own energy sources here at home, even as it's applauding another country's efforts to grow its own economy and create jobs by tapping into its own energy sources," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
In order to meet his goal of cutting oil imports by one third, Obama will call for new incentives for companies to speed up oil and gas production on current and future leases. An Interior Department report said more than two-thirds of offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico are sitting idle, neither producing oil and gas nor being actively explored by the companies who hold the leases. The department said those leases could potentially hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The President will also call for increased use of biofuels and the construction of four new advanced biofuel plants in the US within the next two year. However, advanced biofuels - fuels made from non-food sources such as wood chips, switch grass or plant waste - are still in their infancy and cannot yet be made in amounts similar to corn ethanol. Congress has directed more money to research and development of those fuels in recent years as some critics of corn ethanol have linked the diversion of corn for fuel to rising food prices.
The president is also planning to order government agencies to ensure that by 2015, all new vehicles they purchase are alternative-fuel vehicles, including hybrid and electric. Obama has previously set a goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on roads by 2015.
Administration officials said Obama's plans would require significant spending on research and development, though they offered no cost estimates.
news.com
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