President Obama traveled to Florida today to visit the University of Miami, where he met with students specializing in energy efficiency. After touring the school’s engineering facilities, the President talked about his work to support families struggling with the rising cost at the pump:

I have directed my administration to look for every single area where we can make an impact and help consumers in the months ahead, from permitting to delivery bottlenecks to what’s going on in the oil markets. We’re going to look at every single aspect of gas prices, because we know the burden that it’s putting on consumers. And we will keep taking as many steps as we can in the coming weeks.

Looking to the longer term, President Obama announced a number of new energy programs and investments.

We’re launching a program that will bring together the nation’s best scientists and engineers and entrepreneurs to figure out how more cars can be powered by natural gas, a fuel that’s cleaner and cheaper and more abundant than oil. We’ve got more of that. We don’t have to import it. We may be exporting it soon.

We’re making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel that’s actually made from a plant-like substance—algae. You’ve got a bunch of algae out here, right? If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we’ll be doing all right.

Believe it or not, we could replace up to 17 percent of the oil we import for transportation with this fuel that we can grow right here in the United States. And that means greater energy security. That means lower costs. It means more jobs. It means a stronger economy.

Find out more about President Obama’s energy policy here.