White House: Diverse energy policy needed

Factors beyond U.S. control mean the nation must develop many energy sources, the White House said as President Barack Obama was to talk about his energy plans. "That's why you need a comprehensive energy strategy," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "That's why you need an 'all-of-the-above' approach." Such an approach includes investing in so-called sustainable-energy technologies such as hydroelectricity, solar, wind, geothermal and tidal and wave power, Carney told reporters Tuesday. It also includes expanding Alaska and Gulf of Mexico oil exploration and increasing nuclear power, he said. "You need to do it all," he said. "And that's the only approach that is responsible." He spoke as Obama prepared to speak at the first in a series of events focused on his energy plans, and as Republican GOP presidential hopefuls and GOP lawmakers blame him for the rise in gasoline prices. They also cast him as unfriendly to domestic oil production, particularly after his administration's decision to postpone the construction of the Keystone pipeline system. Keystone is a pipeline system to transport synthetic crude oil and diluted asphalt to U.S. destinations from Alberta, Canada, north of Montana. "President Obama has thwarted more American energy production at every turn, from his refusal to back bipartisan, House-passed energy bills to his rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline -- and now Americans are paying the price every time they fill up," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement Tuesday. Obama was to visit the University of Miami, which has an industrial energy efficiency program tied to the U.S. Energy Department, where students and others research energy-conservation techniques for industry. He was to tour the Industrial Assessment Center -- one of 24 in the country -- at 1:45 p.m. EST and deliver remarks to students and faculty members at 2:25 p.m., the White House said. In his remarks, Obama was expected to call for a diverse energy plan and lay out his efforts to boost domestic production of oil and gas, Carney said. He was also expected to tout energy measures the administration has already taken, such as higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, and to cite statistics that domestic oil production is up while oil imports are down, administration officials said. Obama was also expected to revive his call for an end to subsidies for oil and gas companies, The Wall Street Journal reported. Obama made ending oil and gas subsidies a key point in his budget fights with Republicans last year. Administration officials pointed Tuesday to an energy-security speech Obama gave at Washington's Georgetown University 11 months ago, during a time when gas prices were also rising. "There are no quick fixes," he said March 30, 2011. "Anybody who tells you otherwise isn't telling you the truth. And we will keep on being a victim to shifts in the oil market until we finally get serious about a long-term policy for a secure, affordable energy future." Analysts say shifts in the oil market go beyond simple market forces or possible supply disruptions, such as from a U.S. military confrontation with Iran in the Persian Gulf's Strait of Hormuz. The shifts are also a result of, and are more likely caused by, rampant financial speculation, they say. "Speculation is now part of the DNA of oil prices. You cannot separate the two anymore. There is no demarcation," Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. analyst Fadel Gheit, a 30-year veteran of energy markets, told McClatchy Newspapers. An "Iran security premium" to hedge against a confrontation would put crude "at about $90 or $95 [a barrel]," energy analyst John Kilduff of AgainCapital LLC commodities investment firm told McClatchy. But crude topped $106 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday. Financial speculators historically accounted for about 30 percent of oil trading in commodity markets, while producers and end users made up about 70 percent. Today, it's almost the reverse, McClatchy said.