Obama urges greater use of biofuels

Unveiling the actions in a meeting with energy-state governors at the White House, President Obama said the steps would create jobs in rural areas, reduce foreign energy dependence and curb the emissions that scientists blame for global warming.

"It's important for us to understand that in order for us to move forward with a robust energy policy," Obama said, "we've got to have not an either/or philosophy but a both/and philosophy -- a philosophy that says traditional sources of energy are going to continue to be important for a while, so we've got to just use technologies to make them cleaner and more efficient."

Most notably, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made final a regulation that could give corn ethanol a much larger share of the renewable-fuel market mandated by Congress in 2007.

An earlier version of the rule included a controversial calculation -- since reworked by EPA scientists -- that would have minimized corn ethanol's role because of concerns about the fuel's overall pollution-fighting credentials.

The administration said the EPA rule alone would lead to a $41.5-billion reduction in oil imports and take the equivalent of 27 million vehicles off the road.


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