Let's get to the point. Here's what President Obama wants to do regarding the US's energy policy (All the citations you need can be taken from his many, many speeches on the subject):
1. Be energy self-sufficient
2. Focus on "green" energy sources
3. Cut down carbon emissions and "stop damaging the planet"
Here's a simple elaboration on each point:
1. Be energy self-sufficient
What this basically means is that they want to stop relying on Middle Eastern oil. According to the definition, relying on Canadian oil (more importantly, oil sands / tar sands) is still self-reliance because Canada is part of North America. This is vital as Canada has enough oil reserves to last the two countries for the better part of the next century. However, the problem with this is the following two points.
2. Focus on "green" energy sources
The US wants to focus more on wind, solar, hydro, and biofuels because of the low carbon footprint. The public opinion is that bad giant oil generators destroy forests and fuel global warming, therefore they must go for the good wind, solar, and other such good sources of energy. It should be obvious then, that oil and gas kinda goes against such a mindset.
3. Cut down carbon emissions and "stop damaging the planet"
More or less a byproduct of the above, but not limited to the energy industry. They plan to basically punish any polluting industries by leving heavier taxes, carbon capture technologies, carbon pollution permits, cap and trade, etc.
The Dilemma:
It bears no mention that green energy is stupidly expensive, hard to place, and generate miniscule amounts of energy for the amount of resources they use. Considering the state that the US economy is in, it's inconcievable that they will manage to convince the consumer that his energy bill will go up by 75% because they decided to go green. However, the alternative is reliance on more coal, oil, and gas facilities which obviously go completely against points 2 and 3. Furthermore, the public media has lamblasted Canadian oil to be completely putrid and terrible, a sin on earth. As Middle Eastern oil is relatively cleaner and cheaper than Canadian oil, it would make a better alternative... though that would go completely against the policy of self-reliance.
As you can see... every road seems to negate another. Granted, the issue is far... far more complicated than these few paragraphs entail but I'd like to hear your opinion. What would you do if you were now in Obama's shoes? Would you sacrifice self-reliance for greener, more expensive energy, or would you sacrifice the environment so that people don't go bankrupt on their energy bills?
If you're curious of my opinion, it's quite simple. Nuclear nuclear nuclear nuclear nuclear.