Although President Obama and the participants in a town hall meeting Friday at Binghamton University in New York devoted most of their discourse to education, energy was mentioned once, with the president acknowledging the rise of natural gas but calling for further investment in alternative energies not derived from fossil fuels.

“We are going to have to prepare for a different energy future than the one we have right now,” Obama said at the school, one of several stops along a two-day bus trip across New York and Pennsylvania. “We’re producing traditional energy, fossil fuels, at record levels. We’ve actually achieved, or are on the verge of achieving, about as close as you can get to energy independence as America is going to see. Natural gas, oil, all of that stuff has gone up. In some cases what you’re seeing is that — for example transitional fuels like natural gas — have replaced coal, which temporarily are reducing greenhouse gases.

“But the bottom line is those still are finite resources, climate change is real, the planet is getting warmer, and you’ve got several billion Chinese, Indians, Africans and others who also want cars, refrigerators [and] electricity. And as they go through their development cycle, the planet cannot sustain the same kinds of energy use as we have right now. So we’re going to have to make a shift.”

The president did not mention hydraulic fracturing (fracking) or the ongoing moratorium in New York.

Obama blasted Congress for being too cozy with the oil and gas industry.

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen too often in Congress, is that the fossil fuel industries tend to be very influential — let’s put it that way — on the energy committees in Congress,” the president said. “And they tend not to be particularly sympathetic to alternative energy strategies. And in some cases we’ve actually been criticized that it’s a socialist plot that’s restricting your freedom for us to encourage energy efficient light bulbs, for example.

“I never understood that, but you hear those arguments. You can go on the web and people will be decrying how simple stuff that we’re doing like trying to set up regulations to make appliances more energy efficient — which saves consumers money and is good for our environment — is somehow restricting American liberty and violates the Constitution.”

The crowds lining the president’s route in New York State included some carrying pro- and anti-fracking messages, but they were a minority of the on-lookers that turned out to see the president. Obama was scheduled to visit and deliver a speech from Lackawanna College in Scranton, PA, later on Friday. Vice President Joe Biden joined Obama in Scranton, the vice president’s hometown.

Last week, Lackawanna College President Mark Volk was present for the grand opening of a new condensed natural gas (CNG) station in Susquehanna County that was built by Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. During the ceremony, Volk touted the school’s decision to convert its campus in New Milford, PA, to a Petroleum & Natural Gas Education Center.