Obama: 'All of the above' on energy

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama said Saturday "there are no quick fixes" and called for a comprehensive strategy to develop "every available source of American energy."

In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president repeated most of the points he made during the past week in talking about rising gasoline prices, calling the price spike "another painful reminder of why developing new energy is so important to our future."

"And that hurts everyone -- everyone who owns a car; everyone who owns a business," he said. "It means you have to stretch your paycheck even further. Some folks have no choice but to drive a long way to work, and high gas prices are like a tax straight out of their paychecks."

Obama repeated a line from a speech he delivered Thursday in Florida, saying "some politicians always see this as a political opportunity."

"And since it's an election year, they're already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 (a gallon) gas," the president said. "I'll save you the suspense: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling. We hear the same thing every year.

"Well the American people aren't stupid," he said. "You know that's not a plan -- especially since we're already drilling. It's a bumper sticker. It's not a strategy to solve our energy challenge. It's a strategy to get politicians through an election.

"You know there are no quick fixes to this problem, and you know we can't just drill our way to lower gas prices," the president said. "If we're going to take control of our energy future and avoid these gas price spikes down the line, then we need a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy -- oil, gas, wind, solar, nuclear, biofuels, and more. We need to keep developing the technology that allows us to use less oil in our cars and trucks; in our buildings and plants. That's the strategy we're pursuing, and that's the only real solution to this challenge."

Obama called on Americans to support "a sustained, serious effort to tackle" the problem of rising prices and "our dependence on foreign oil."