President announces fuel efficiency goals – but Republicans push to stop administration from acting on climate change
Barack Obama called for cutting US oil imports by a third on Wednesday, in a speech aimed at defending his energy agenda from Republican attacks.
President Obama also said the federal government would buy only advanced technology vehicles – such as electric plug-ins and hybrids – by 2015. In his second speech on oil in three weeks, Obama said America was long overdue to develop domestic sources of energy and reduce fuel consumption.
"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," he said.
But the limits of Obama's powers were underlined by Republican accusations on Wednesday that his administration was to blame for rising petrol prices. The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, accused Obama of "waging a war on American energy" and blocking domestic offshore drilling.
Meanwhile, the Senate moved towards a vote on proposals to ban the administration from acting on climate change – ruling out the very fuel efficiency goals Obama set out on Wednesday.
In his speech at Georgetown University, the president said he wanted the cut in imports within a decade. However, a fact sheet put out by the White House said the plans would not achieve those cuts until 2025.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the president returned to earlier promises to expand offshore oil drilling and build more nuclear plants – although he said there would be better safety measures after the BP oil disaster and the emergency in Japan.
He called for developing the natural gas and biofuels industry, and set out a series of goals for getting more electric cars on the roads and raising fuel efficiency standards. However, Republican proposals now awaiting a vote in the Senate would block the administration from raising fuel emissions standards for cars in the future.
The most drastic Republican proposal would overturn the scientific finding that climate change is a threat to public health, and bar the Environmental Protection Agency from any actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
It would also block the government from setting high fuel emission standards for cars.
Other proposals, put forward by Democrats, would put a two-year hold on the EPA, or exempt large portions of the economy from regulation.