Obama unveils plan to trim oil imports

President Barack Obama Wednesday outlined a national policy that he said could reduce oil imports by a third in the next 14 years through conservation, increased U.S. oil and gas production and development of alternate energy sources.

Meanwhile, new surveys showed gasoline and heating oil up a penny on Long Island in the past week.

Imports supply about half the nation's petroleum needs or about 11 million barrels a day. Obama referenced Middle East and North African political tensions and the resulting increase in prices in a speech delivered shortly before noon at Georgetown University during which he called for greater energy conservation in homes and quicker development of more fuel-efficient cars and energy sources other than oil.

He also called for increased production of American oil and gas. "Here's the bottom line," he said. "There are no quick fixes. Anybody who tells you otherwise isn't telling you the truth."

Republicans, though, dismissed the plan. "The president's target is decades from now," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. "But Americans should be able to expect action now."

Regular gasoline on Long Island averaged $3.794 a gallon Wednesday, the AAA said -- up 1.1 cents from a week earlier and up 85.5 cents from a year earlier. Heating oil averaged $4.055 a gallon at full service dealers on Long Island in a survey by the state Energy Research and Development Authority. Both averages are the highest ever for winter; the records for both were set in July of 2008 when regular gasoline locally averaged $4.346 and heating oil hit $4.93.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information service, based in Wall, N.J., predicts gasoline prices will rise by another five to 10 cents a gallon in coming weeks as more-expensive summer grade gasoline is phased in. But he thinks the seasonal spring peak in prices will come early this year, perhaps in late April, and that conservation by motorists because of high prices will help force them back downward.

"I still believe we're in the last couple of innings and we're starting to see the first vestiges of demand destruction out there," he said.

The weekly SpendingPulse report issued Tuesday by a unit of MasterCard showed the amount of gasoline purchased nationally by all methods of payment in the week that ended Friday fell slightly from the previous week and from the same week a year earlier, to about 65 million barrels.

The website LongIslandgasprices.com, which is based on motorist reports, indicated prices Wednesday afternoon for regular varying from $3.55 to $3.99 but a photographer shooting for Newsday found a station on Huntington charging $4.099 for regular.

Oil futures slipped a little Wednesday on new numbers from the federal government showing crude oil inventories higher than expected, settling down 52 cents at $104.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

With Bloomberg News