Obama puts focus on energy policy

US President Obama summoned Americans on Tuesday to a "national mission" to move away from reliance on oil and develop alternative sources of energy, demanding that Congress move quickly to overcome "a lack of political courage and candor."

Speaking to a national television audience from the Oval Office, Mr. Obama also promised a long-term plan to make sure that the gulf states suffering from the oil spill are made whole again. He said he was appointing Ray Mabus, the secretary of the Navy and the former governor of Mississippi, to develop a Gulf Coast restoration plan in cooperation with states, local communities, tribes, fishermen, conservationists and gulf residents.

"Today, as we look to the gulf, we see an entire way of life being threatened by a menacing cloud of black crude," Mr. Obama said. "We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now."

For Mr. Obama, the 18-minute address, in which he spoke from his desk, took place in a far different venue from the crowded campaign rallies, international university halls and banquet rooms where he has produced some of his most soaring speeches. This time, Mr. Obama, wearing a dark blue suit and light blue tie, struck a solemn tone but a hopeful one as he spoke of the American ingenuity he said was now needed to help the country rein in its reliance on oil.

Seizing on the widening oil calamity in the Gulf of Mexico to push for legislation he has advocated since his campaign, Mr. Obama said he was willing to look at approaches from Democrats and Republicans, including raising efficiency standards for buildings as well as cars and trucks.

described the spill as an "assault on our shores" and invoked the need for a military response. "We're going to fight back with everything we've got," he said. "And that includes mobilizing our resources with the greatest military in the world."

Administration officials said the speech marked "an inflection point" in the nearly two-month-old crisis: the end of a phase in which BP tried and failed to stop the leak using the quickest available options, and the beginning of the "new reality" that plugging the leak could take months and the cleanup months or even years past that.

Mr. Obama has said all along that BP will pay for everything. But while hopeful of announcing, at a meeting with BP's top executives on Wednesday, an arrangement for BP to place billions of dollars into an independently administered escrow account, Mr. Obama provided no details on Tuesday. People close to BP say as asset-rich as the global oil giant is, its holdings are not so liquid that it can instantly set aside as many billions of dollars as the White House and leaders in Congress are seeking. Also being worked out are the terms by which BP would have to replenish the fund as it is drawn down.

BP officials are adamant that the company should not be liable for the lost wages of oil workers laid off because of the six-month moratorium that the Obama administration imposed on deepwater offshore drilling after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire. But Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other administration officials repeatedly have cited idled oil workers as among those who could press claims.