Obama: US can’t have ‘either-or’ policy on new technologies, conventional energy sources

Obama: Energy policy must have some old, some new

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the country must develop cleaner energy technologies while at the same time still relying upon traditional power sources like nuclear and coal.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Obama said the United States “can’t overnight convert to an all-solar, all-wind economy.” He said he is convinced the nation that leads the way in clean energy “is going to win the race in the 21st century global economy.”

Obama said America will continue to “need some of the old traditional energy sources as we’re developing these new ones, ramping them up.” He said ways must be found to increase oil and natural gas production and that America has “to take a both-end approach, rather than an either-or approach” to energy policy.