WASHINGTON: Fading Republican 2012 candidate Rick Perry Friday pledged to unleash a new economic boom by throwing open land and seas for oil drilling and tapping America's status as the "Saudi Arabia of coal."
The Texas governor tried to revive his presidential campaign with the first of a series of policy speeches, in which he pledged to swiftly create 1.2 million jobs in a wholesale rejection of Obama-era energy policies.
"America needs jobs. America needs energy. America needs a made-in-America energy revolution," Perry told steel workers in the gritty city of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, a vital general election swing state.
"We must get America working again. And a big part of the solution is right under our feet and right off our coasts.
"We're standing on top of the next American economic boom, and it's the energy underneath this country."
Perry's plan to harness fossil fuels will likely horrify the environmental lobby, which has been critical of even President Barack Obama's failure to act more aggressively to back a more concerted policy to tackle global warming.
But the Texas governor rejected the idea that the United States must make a choice between exploiting its energy resources and protecting the environment.
Perry accused the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of waging a "war on American fossil fuel production" and argued the energy industry was better regulated by state and local authorities.
"I'll stop the EPA's Draconian measures related to the regulation of greenhouse gasses," Perry said.
"You know, when you consider that any carbon reduction will be offset by the increase of carbon emissions by developing countries like China and India.
"The EPA would ... tie this economy in knots and give the advantage to our global competitors while realizing absolutely no global environmental benefit in the process."
Perry promised to open gas and oil fields for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, and off the coast of Virginia and to do more to tap energy stocks in America's interior.
"You know, America has proven but untapped supplies of natural gas, of oil, of coal. America's the Saudi Arabia of coal," he said.
"But President Obama and ... the Environmental Protection Agency -- won't allow American businesses and American labor to draw on even a fraction of this domestic energy from reserves on government-owned land.
"The American economy shouldn't be beaten into the ground, when greater energy independence and lower energy costs lie right under American soil.
"It's time to end the over-regulation, excess litigation, and bureaucratic intimidation," Perry said.
"Let's get back to what works to get America working again: Make what Americans buy, buy what Americans make, and sell it to the world."
Perry exploded into the Republican presidential race in August and swept to the head of the field by overhauling long-time front runner Mitt Romney.
But a series of shaky debate performances dimmed Perry's star and the latest national polls suggest he has slipped behind Romney and former pizza tycoon and businessman Herman Cain.
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