State of the Union: All of the Above Energy Policy

President Obama highlighted natural gas and other “fuels of the future” in his State of the Union address last week, and pledged to set new efficiency standards for trucks and “cut red tape” to help businesses build factories that use natural gas.
 
Businesses plan to invest about $100 billion in such factories, Obama said, challenging Congress to help by “putting people to work” building natural gas fueling stations, shifting vehicles away from foreign oil.
 
He called for an end to the $4 billion a year in tax breaks for “fossil fuel industries that don’t need it, so we can invest in more fuels of the future that do.” Obama said his administration will work with industry to encourage job growth while protecting air, water and communities.
 
The president called climate change a fact, and touted carbon pollution reduction in the US over the past eight years, which he said was greater than any other nation. But he said Congress and the country should “act with more urgency,” citing the droughts in the West and coastal communities dealing with floods.
 
The official Republican response from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Called for lower energy costs for consumers.  Sen. Mike Lee, providing a response sponsored by the Tea Party, said the President was blocking thousands of middle-class jobs in the energy industry as a favor to partisan donors and radical environmental activists.”