In weekly address, Obama declares it's time to create Energy Security Trust

President Obama took a break this morning from discussing the sequester in his weekly address and instead pitched his new Energy Security Trust to listeners, an endeavor he first announced yesterday when he toured the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.

First, he pointed out progress:

We produce more oil than we have in 15 years. We import less oil than we have in 20 years. We've doubled the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar ' with tens of thousands of good jobs to show for it. We're producing more natural gas than ever before ' with hundreds of thousands of good jobs to show for it. We've supported the first new nuclear power plant since the 1970s. And we're sending less carbon pollution into the environment than we have in nearly 20 years.

But, he said, gas prices have risen in recent weeks and we clearly there are more steps that need to be taken. Yes, auto efficiency standards are in place now that weren't in the past, and this too is progress. "But," he told listeners, "the only way we're going to break this cycle of spiking gas prices for good is to shift our cars and trucks off of oil for good." And that's where the Energy Security Trust, first announced in his State of the Union address, comes in:

Here's how it would work. Much of our energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. So I'm proposing that we take some of our oil and gas revenues from public lands and put it towards research that will benefit the public, so that we can support American ingenuity without adding a dime to our deficit. We can support scientists who are designing new engines that are more energy efficient; developing cheaper batteries that go farther on a single charge; and devising new ways to fuel our cars and trucks with new sources of clean energy ' like advanced biofuels and natural gas ' so drivers can one day go coast-to-coast without using a drop of oil.

In an obvious effort to forestall objections from the right, he made a quick disclaimer: Hey, it's not my idea! It's the idea of CEO's and big business!

Now, this idea isn't mine. It's actually built off a proposal put forward by a non-partisan coalition of CEOs and retired generals and admirals. So let's take their advice and free our families and our businesses from painful spikes in gas prices once and for all.

Exploring and investing in new energy alternatives is crucial, he said, but can be carried on while we continue an "all-of-the-above energy strategy"'continuing use of domestic fossil fuels while transitioning to alternatives.

To read the transcript in full, check below the fold or visit the White House website.