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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPresident Barack Obama will make his postponed visit to an Indianapolis auto parts manufacturer on Friday and will use the occasion to talk about plans for dealing with rising gas prices, the White House announced Sunday.
Obama will tour the Allison Transmission plant in Indianapolis, then talk to workers about his plans "to protect consumers against rising oil prices and decrease oil imports while ensuring a cleaner, safer and more secure energy future," the White House said in a news release.
Allison Transmission is involved in hybrid vehicle technology and makes automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. It has about 2,500 employees in Indiana. Obama canceled a planned April 8 visit to the plant to stay in Washington to deal with a threatened government shutdown over the federal budget.
The president's last stop in Indiana was a November visit to a Chrysler transmission plant in Kokomo.
Obama has set a goal of cutting U.S. oil imports from the 11 million barrels a day level from when he was elected in 2008 by one-third by 2025. Energy policy was the focus of his radio and Internet address Saturday.
"An investment in clean energy today is an investment in a better tomorrow," he said. "And I think that's an investment worth making."
During the talk, he repeated his call for an end to tax subsidies for oil and gas companies.
"When oil companies are making huge profits and you're struggling at the pump, and we're scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren't right," Obama said. "These tax giveaways aren't right. They aren't smart. And we need to end them."
In the Republican response, Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma said ending the tax breaks would increase, not lower, the price of gas.
"The president may think he's punishing CEOs of big companies but his plan will hurt the everyday consumer of energy and imperil the jobs of millions of hardworking people in American-based companies," Lankford said.
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