President Obama used the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast as a pivot point on Wednesday, calling on Congress to pass a climate change bill 'this year.' Obama cites spill in climate pitch

FREMONT, Calif. – President Obama called the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico “heartbreaking” and said it makes the passage of climate change legislation all the more urgent this year.

“The spill in the Gulf, which is just heartbreaking, only underscores the necessity of seeking alternative fuel sources,” Obama said after declaring climate change a “threat to our way of life” and calling on Congress to pass climate change bill “this year.”


Obama expressed tempered hope that the attempt to plug the oil leak, an effort known as top kill, will work. The Coast Guard gave BP approval to go ahead with the operation as early as Wednesday.

“If it’s successful, and there are no guarantees, it should greatly reduce or eliminate the flow of oil now streaming into the Gulf from the sea floor,” he said. “If it’s not there are other approaches that may be viable.”

Increasingly under fire for his response to the oil spill, Obama said his administration is “intensively engaged.” “We’re going to bring every resource necessary to put a stop to this,” he said, adding that he looks forward to visiting the Gulf Coast Friday to “lend my support to the region.”

But even as he expressed concern about the oil spill, Obama pivoted off the current crisis to make a pitch for refocusing America’s energy use away from fossil fuels like oil and toward a cleaner-energy economy.

Obama pivoted off the current crisis to reinforce how dangerous the United States’ dependence on oil is and to press for energy and climate change legislation.

“We all know the price we pay as a country,” Obama said. “With the increased risks and increased costs, it gives you a sense of where we’re going. We’re not going got be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use. This planet can’t sustain it.”

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have proposed a climate-change bill, though Democrats are skeptical that it can get traction in a year that has already seen major fights over health care and Wall Street reform, especially with the midterms looming.

But even as Obama vowed to set the country on a clean energy path and promised his administration “will not rest” until the leak is plugged, Obama acknowledged that an immeasurable amount of damage has already been done – to the ecosystem in the Gulf Coast and beyond, to the economies of the communities that rely on it.

“We’re going to bring every resource necessary to put a stop to this thing but a lot of damage has been done already,” Obama said.

America’s oil addiction is not only a national security and economic threat, he said, but also sets the nation at a global competitive disadvantage.

The nation that leads the clean energy economy is the one that will lead the global economy, he said.

Before addressing workers, Obama toured the manufacturing plant and adjacent construction site of a company called Solyndra. The construction is funded through a grant in the stimulus bill and is expected to expand Solyndra’s business and create several thousand jobs.

Obama then promised the couple hundred workers seated in the new manufacturing building that the economy will get better.

“As difficult as it may be,” he said, “we will recover. ... We will rebuild.”