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Obama’s Energy Policy

March 21, 2012 by · Comments Off on Obama’s Energy Policy 

Obama’s Energy Policy, Wooing a nation of increasingly angry motorists, President Barack Obama and his Republican rivals are all plunging into gas-pump politics, seeking the upper hand as energy becomes a driving issue in the election campaign.

The president is defending his energy agenda this week, traveling Wednesday to a solar panel plant in Nevada and later to oil and gas fields in New Mexico and the site of a future oil pipeline in Oklahoma. At the same time, GOP opponents from front-runner Mitt Romney on down are vigorously accusing him of stifling domestic production and betting on foolhardy alternative energy methods over traditional oil drilling.

With gasoline reaching $3.86 a gallon in the U.S. and apparently heading higher, the public is impatient for Obama – or someone in his place – to do something about it.

In truth, a president has little direct control over gas prices, which have risen more than 50 cents a gallon since January in response to a standoff over Iran’s nuclear program that has threatened to disrupt Middle East oil supplies.

Well aware of Republicans’ criticism, Obama’s advisers argue that voters take a sophisticated view toward energy and think about it as a problem demanding long-term answers. They know that talk about future solutions may not satisfy people as they endure high prices, but they’re betting that voters will side with the candidate they trust the most to deal with the issue – and they’re determined that that will be Obama.

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