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Obama, at Bucks plant, touts his energy policy

President Obama shucked his suit jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and even dropped a couple of g's from his gerunds as he bantered with the audience at a Bucks County wind-turbine plant Wednesday afternoon, selling the administration's energy policy - and himself.

President Barack Obama points while speaking at the Gamesa Technology
Corporation in Fairless Hills, Pa. on Wednesday. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo)
President Barack Obama points while speaking at the Gamesa Technology Corporation in Fairless Hills, Pa. on Wednesday. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo)Read more

President Obama shucked his suit jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and even dropped a couple of g's from his gerunds as he bantered with the audience at a Bucks County wind-turbine plant Wednesday afternoon, selling the administration's energy policy - and himself.

Obama was folksy and feisty during the visit to the Gamesa Technology Corp. factory in Fairless Hills, on the first presidential trip since Monday's official announcement that he is seeking reelection.

It was a chance for Obama to test campaign themes and try to soar above what he called the "petty politics" of Washington, where a stalemate in budget negotiations between Democrats and House Republicans on Wednesday brought the federal government closer to a possible shutdown.

Obama said the United States needed a "sustained" energy policy that did not fluctuate with the price of gasoline and relied on developing cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels. He wants to reduce oil imports by one-third by 2025, and to be able to get 80 percent of the nation's electricity from clean sources such as solar and wind power 10 years after that.

"These are not your father's windmills," Obama told about 400 workers and guests at Gamesa, with a massive wind-turbine hub and gearbox looming behind him. "You guys are not messing around. This is the future of American energy."

Conservatives argue that Obama should be pushing for more production of domestic sources of petroleum and natural gas instead of stressing green energy technologies that they say are not yet economically tenable.

On the shoulder of the road leading into the industrial complex that houses Gamesa, a handful of placard- and flag-waving tea party activists and a smattering of Obama supporters waited for a glimpse of a motorcade - but one never came, since the president was delivered from Philadelphia International Airport by Marine helicopter.

At noon, about 35 tea partyers gathered for a news conference to decry what they regard as Obama's discouragement of domestic oil production and his encouragement of "out-of-control spending." Some waved "Don't Tread on Me" flags, while others held signs with slogans such as: "Green Is the New Red" and "4 Dollars a Gallon. THANKSABUNCH, BARACK."

"Our purpose is to send a message to the president that to build up our economy, we need to drill more and spend less," said Don Adams, a cofounder and board member of the Independence Hall Tea Party Association.

"Wind energy is not necessarily at this point a very lucrative way to go - although it is very windy out here today," Adams conceded with a laugh, his hair blowing in the gusts. "He lucked out with this weather."

In his remarks, Obama offered a response to those arguments, saying that U.S. oil production had never been higher than now, but that the nation lacked enough of the world's reserves to "drill our way out of the problem." The solution, he said, involves more domestic oil and gas, as well as coal, but also alternative sources and greater fuel efficiency for vehicles.

"I don't understand why some folks think that if you promote clean energy that somehow you're some pointy-headed, environmentalist type, but if you're all about just drilling and getting more oil, then you're a tough guy," Obama said.

He took questions from the audience, and poked fun at himself, saying at one point that he would not have been able to reinsulate his own house - "I would have gotten a nail in my thumb or something, because I'm challenged in those ways."

After one questioner mentioned having 10 children and another referred to his seven offspring, Obama joked: "Let me just ask: Is there some kind of rule at Gamesa that you have to have a lot of kids?"

It was no accident that Obama came to Pennsylvania, a state that his strategists say he must carry to win a second term. The state has gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1988, but Republicans are sensing some vulnerability, considering how well the party did in Pennsylvania during 2010's midterms.

Republican Pat Toomey was elected senator and Republican Tom Corbett governor, and the GOP picked up U.S. House seats from Pennsylvania, bringing the party's advantage to 12-7 in the state delegation.

Bucks County, in the Eighth Congressional District, is part of the swath of suburban Philadelphia communities that decides statewide elections. Obama carried the county by 8 percentage points over John McCain in 2008, and in November Republican Mike Fitzpatrick knocked off Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy by roughly the same margin.

Already since taking office in January 2009, Obama has now visited Pennsylvania 12 times, the White House said.

Obama was making his second visit to Gamesa, after a trip during the 2008 campaign. It has become a popular stop for campaigning political leaders who want to talk about energy policy.

Gamesa opened in 2005, lured to Pennsylvania in part by a $10 million state grant championed by then-Gov. Ed Rendell. It also is in a Keystone Opportunity Zone, so the company pays no state corporate taxes or local property taxes through 2019. In 2009, Gamesa received $2.8 million from the economic stimulus legislation.

The Fairless Hills plant employs about 300 people, and another 300 are working at a plant in Ebensburg, Cambria County, company officials said. All told, Gamesa has 900 employees in the United States.