President Obama on Wednesday vowed to cut oil imports by a third by 2025, outlining an energy blueprint he said is necessary to curtail American dependence on foreign fuels as turmoil in the Middle East wreaks havoc on prices at the pump. “We cannot keep going from shock to trance on the issue of energy security, rushing to propose action when gas prices rise, then hitting the snooze button when they fall again,” the president said in a speech at Georgetown University. “The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity and security on a resource that will eventually run out.”
It is hardly a new clarion call, as presidents for decades have warned about the nation’s dependence on foreign oil while setting benchmarks that wouldn’t be met until well after they leave office. But the administration says that advances in technology, coupled with Obama’s financial commitment to additional domestic oil production, biofuels, nuclear power, electric vehicles and natural gas, would produce noticeable results in coming years.
Republicans were hardly swayed by the appeal to about 1,000 Georgetown students, particularly on the heels of Obama’s trip to Brazil, where he pledged the U.S. would become one of the country’s “best customers” for oil.
“Tell a Democrat in Washington that gas prices are too high, and, as if on cue, they’ll throw together a speech or a press conference to suggest that we open an underground oil reserve that was created to deal with calamities, not market pressures,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Defensive at times, Obama highlighted his extensive moratorium on offshore drilling in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, which critics said stymied economic growth.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t have amnesia,” the president said, alluding to the seemingly endless deluge of oil in the Gulf waters. “I remember these things.”
Administration officials used the speech to press oil producers into action on their federal leases, citing an Interior Department report that found more than two-thirds of offshore leases and half of onshore leases remain idle.
“Any claim that my administration is responsible for gas prices because we’ve ‘shut down’ oil production might make for a useful political sound bite — but it doesn’t track with reality,” Obama said, noting that since last year the administration approved two permits for every new well constructed.
With the U.S. controlling just 2 percent of world oil reserves and importing nearly 10 million barrels of oil a day, the president argued that production of traditional energy sources would do little to alter dependence on foreign sources. In total, his budget contains more than $8 billion for clean energy programs.
Any dramatic change in energy policy, however, would certainly fail without a change in consumer behavior.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu previously said that Americans’ dependence on foreign oil would not subside without gas prices similar to those in European nations, which heavily tax fuel. But he said Wednesday that while the administration has no stomach for higher gasoline taxes during economic turmoil.
Chu, however, defended Obama’s plan to curb oil imports by a third in just 15 years.
“This is a goal, although ambitious, I believe is achievable,” Chu said. “I think technologically we’re much closer than we ever were.”
