President George W. Bush called today for tapping renewable energy sources like wind and solar power to contend with surging energy costs but environmental groups questioned his commitment to easing US oil dependence.
Mr Bush also told employees at a key laboratory for renewable energy research that he regretted "mixed signals" that had led the Colorado facility to announce job cuts earlier this month because of budget cuts.
He visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado a day after his administration rushed the transfer of $5 million to the lab to enable it to restore the jobs and resolve what could have been an embarrassing situation.
US President George W Bush
Democrats had cited the job cuts as a sign of lack of real commitment by the government to energy independence initiatives that Mr Bush, a former oil company executive, announced with great fanfare in his State of the Union speech on January 31st.
The stop in Golden was the last on a two-day, three-state tour on which Bush pushed his new energy approach.
"I have spent a lot of time worrying about the national security implications of being addicted to oil," Mr Bush said. "The demand for oil is rising faster than the supply of oil. Any time that happens it creates the conditions for what could be price disruption."
In a congressional election year when Democrats are hoping to challenge Republican dominance in both houses of Congress, soaring costs for gasoline and home-heating are pinching Americans' budgets. The energy initiative is part of Mr Bush's attempt to show he and fellow Republicans are addressing that issue.
This week, oil prices rose above $60 a barrel after militant attacks in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest crude exporter