Obama Seems to Want it Both Ways in Energy Development

Promotes both solar and fracking in State of the Union speech

President Barack Obama made it clear Tuesday that he still thinks he can have it both ways on energy — taking unprecedented action on climate change while proudly presiding over a historic boom in oil and natural gas drilling.

And he probably can, for now, much to the chagrin of green activists who think he isn't doing enough to fight global warming and fossil fuel producers who don't trust him.

During Tuesday's State of the Union address, Obama somberly declared that "climate change is a fact," something we will have to account for to "our children's children." In the same breath, he extolled the fossil fuel surge, noting that the U.S. produced more oil last year "than we buy from the rest of the world — the first time that's happened in nearly 20 years."