WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- The United States needs to eliminate wasteful spending but can't advance a clean-energy future without new investments, the U.S. president said.
Washington is struggling to draft a new budget while protecting key assets like defense and energy. Oil and gasoline prices are threatening to undermine recovery in the U.S. economy as disposable income is consumed by soaring prices at the pump.
U.S. President Barack Obama last week called on the Justice Department to form a working group to see if there was price manipulation in the energy sector and to evaluate commodity markets to examine the role of speculators and index traders in oil futures markets.
Obama during his weekly radio address said those efforts, along with cutting generous subsidies to oil companies, would go a long way toward securing a clean energy future in the United Sates.
"Instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy sources, we need to invest in tomorrow's," he said. "We need to invest in clean, renewable energy."
