WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A U.S. energy trade group said the next president should take action to eliminate regulations that may inhibit growth in the domestic oil and gas sector.

U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, squared off in their first debate Wednesday. While both candidates spoke in favor of energy independence, they differed on policies to achieve that goal.


Jack Gerard, president and chief executive officer at the American Petroleum Institute, said the next president needs to capitalize on growth in the domestic energy sector.

"The next president must implement a national energy policy and lift existing restrictions on the responsible development of our vast energy resources, approve the Keystone XL pipeline, avoid burdensome regulations that chill economic investment and resist the urge to regulate the very technologies that have made our energy boom possible," he said in a statement.

Romney said he favored renewable energy resources but also spoke in favor of Keystone XL, coal and drilling on federal lands. Obama stuck to his "all-of-the-above" energy policy that includes "wind and solar and biofuels."

Obama's critics say he's supporting policies that inhibit domestic energy production.