Source:
NY TimesWASHINGTON — With gasoline prices rising, oil supplies from the Middle East pinched by political upheaval and growing calls in Congress for expanded domestic oil and gas production, President Obama on Wednesday will set a goal of a one-third reduction in oil imports over the next decade, aides said Tuesday.
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He will call for a consistent long-term fuel-savings strategy of producing more electric cars, converting trucks to run on natural gas, building new refineries to brew billions of gallons of biofuels and setting new fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles. Congress has been debating these measures for years.
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He will respond to members of Congress and oil industry executives who have complained that the administration has choked off domestic oil and gas production by imposing costly new regulations and by blocking exploration on millions of acres of potentially oil-rich tracts both on shore and off.
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“This is an effort to distract the American people from rising gas prices and the fact that the administration has been delaying, deferring or denying access to our oil and natural gas resources here at home,” said Erik Milito, the director of exploration policy at the American Petroleum Institute. “Lease sales have been delayed or canceled, and this year, for the first time since 1957, we may not have a single offshore lease sale.”
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html?_r=2&hp&loc=interstitialskip
Of course, you have Rep. Darrell Issa challenging fuel economy standards as too onerous, and Republicans using the middle east crisis to once again push drill baby drill baby drill with no repercussions from the gulf spill while attacking White House regulations as too onerous. Of course, Republicans will get a free pass on their opposition to measures to develop renewable energy sources and promote energy efficiency.