In a high-profile speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte yesterday former President Bill Clinton praised Barack Obama's power strategy, saying a focus on energy efficiency was driving down the need for oil and gas imports.
The ex-Democrat leader, in a speech attempting to rouse support for Obama, said that deals made with environment groups were paying off and consumer energy bills are on the decline.
He said, 'The President's energy strategy, which he calls all-of-the-above, is helping, too. The boom in oil and gas production, combined with greater energy efficiency, has driven oil imports to a near 20-year low and natural gas production to an all-time high. And renewable energy production has doubled.'
He applauded efforts in Los Angeles to go green and highlighted the infrastructure bank that was being set up in Chicago as a case where the Republicans and Democrats were working together.
'Now, the agreement the administration made with the management, labor, and environmental groups to double car mileage, that was a good deal, too. It will cut your gas prices in half, your gas bill.
'No matter what the price is, if you double the mileage of your car, your bill will be half what it would have been. It will make us more energy independent. It will cut greenhouse gas emission. And according to several analyses, over the next 20 years, it will bring us another 500,000 good, new jobs into the American economy.'
To rousing applause, he added, 'Of course, we need a lot more new jobs, but there are already more than three million jobs open and unfilled in America, mostly because the people who apply for them don't yet have the required skills to do them.
'So even as we get Americans more jobs, we have to prepare more Americans for the new jobs that are actually going to be created. The old economy is not coming back. We've got to build a new one and educate people to do those jobs.'