Gov. Mary Fallin criticizes President Barack Obama's energy policies in national radio address

In a national radio address for the Republican Party, Fallin credited energy for the healthy Oklahoma economy and said Obama is obstructing job creation with his energy policies. The governor said Obama and congressional Democrats “seem to view American-made energy as a hazardous waste rather than a resource.”

“Millions of Americans remain out of work, but President Obama continues to propose job-killing tax hikes and obstruct the basic energy infrastructure projects that would lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs, not to mention more revenue in state budgets,” Fallin said.

The national Republican Party chose Fallin to give the address at a time when the party is hammering the president over high gasoline prices — a topic that has put the administration on the defensive and led in part to a four-state energy tour in which Obama visited Oklahoma last month.

Last year, Republicans picked freshman Rep. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, to give the national weekly address about the same topic.

Obama gave his weekly radio address on Saturday about Easter.

Fallin, who was out of the country on a family vacation during the president's brief visit in March, accused Obama in her Saturday remarks of distorting the truth about some of his energy policies.

She said the president, who spoke near Cushing at a holding yard for pipe that will be used to construct an oil pipeline between that oil storage hub and the Texas Gulf Coast, took credit for the line, which was proposed as part of the Keystone XL project that has yet to be approved by the administration.