Obama: U.S. must lead energy development

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The United States must win the global competition for developing new energy resources, President Barack Obama said Friday in Massachusetts.

"The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy. I am convinced of that," Obama said at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "And I want America to be that nation. It's that simple."

He touted the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for channeling $80 billion for a number of job-producing, energy-related projects, including new battery technologies for hybrid cars, modernizing the nation's electric grid, making homes and businesses more energy efficient and doubling the capacity to generate renewable electricity.

He noted that ground would be broken soon in Boston on a new wind technology testing center because of a $25 million Recovery Act investment.

"Now, even as we're investing in technologies that exist today, we're also investing in the science that will produce the technologies of tomorrow," Obama told the audience of about 750 people, including MIT faculty and staff, business and community leaders, entrepreneurs, local political leaders and congressional members. "The Recovery Act provides the largest single boost in scientific research in history."

Before his comments, Obama toured an MIT research lab that demonstrated wind, solar and battery power.

He also called for "the passage of comprehensive legislation that will finally make renewable energy the profitable kind of energy in America."

Calling such legislation, which already passed the House, a bipartisan issue, Obama said, "Everybody in America should have a stake ... in legislation that can transform our energy system into one that's far more efficient, far cleaner, and provide energy independence for America."