President Obama praises clean energy in State of the Union speech

President Barack Obama used his last State of the Union address to make an economic case for action against climate change and call for accelerating the US away from "dirty energy" like coal.

Earlier in the week (12 January, 2015), the President broadly touted job growth in renewable energy industries and said making "technology work for us" to solve urgent issues like climate change is among the top four questions facing the US.

In his speech, Obama said: "Why would we want to pass up the chance for American businesses to produce and sell the energy of the future?"

He added: "Listen, seven years ago, we made the single biggest investment in clean energy in our history. Here are the results. In fields from Iowa to Texas, wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional power.

"On rooftops from Arizona to New York, solar is saving Americans tens of millions of dollars a year on their energy bills, and employs more Americans than coal — in jobs that pay better than average."

He also said the US had cut its imports of foreign oil by nearly 60% and cut carbon pollution "more than any other country on Earth".

Obama explained that the country had to accelerate the transition away from "old, dirtier energy sources".

He explained: "Rather than subsidise the past, we should invest in the future especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels. We do them no favour when we don't show them where the trends are going.

"That's why I'm going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet."