While President Obama spent most of last evening's Oval Office address waging combat against BP (NYSE: BP), oil industry lobbyists, evil integrated oil companies, and partisan politics, he did little to push forward an agenda that would help us avoid costly oil spills in our oceans.
As Edward Luce wrote in the Financial Times (registration required), "Mr. Obama used the speech to appeal for America to move to a clean energy future. But he stopped short of spelling out precisely how America would get there." Similar to past talking points, President Obama spoke of windmills, solar energy, and energy-efficient windows. However, there was one glaring omission from the speech: our cleanest burning fossil fuel, natural gas.
Perhaps it is the negative connotations associated with drilling, but companies like Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) and Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) are not deepwater drillers. These leaders in the natural gas space own vast regions of shale across their country, where safer drilling is possible.
Municipalities nationwide have already mandated that public transportation be fueled by natural gas to maintain better air quality. It would be disappointing if our nation's most important leaders backed away from the abundant energy source as a result of the crude oil spill affecting the Gulf.
Independents from Apache (NYSE: APA) to super-majors like ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) stand to benefit from a reversal of fortunes for natural gas, but more importantly, so does our country's energy future.
How do you think the Obama administration is handling the disaster in the Gulf? Is natural gas a viable large-scale energy source, or is the president right to focus on wind and solar? Sound off in the comments box below.
