Obama Will Use Gulf Spill to Push Energy Bill

Barack Obama will call for a clean energy bill in his Oval Office address on the oil spill tomorrow, as part of a renewed push for the once all-but-abandoned legislation. The White House believes that the spill has whetted the public’s appetite for energy reform, top aides tell Politico. One Democratic pollster predicts the bill will “give Democrats a potent weapon to wield against Republicans in the fall.”

Obama himself hinted at that strategy in an interview Friday. “In the same way that our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11,” he said, “I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come.” (More Barack Obama stories.)