At a wind-swept oil field in New Mexico yesterday, President Obama walked a fine line between heaping praise on the oil companies whose rigs could be seen in a field behind the stage he was speaking from and calling for what amounts to a $4 billion tax hike on the oil industry.

Such is the delicate minefield Obama maneuvered through on the first day of his "all of the above" energy tour.

The tour continues this morning at a key storage junction along the controversial Keystone XL pipeline where the president will announce a new executive order to speed up permitting and review decisions for infrastructure projects like the southern leg of the Keystone project that is being embraced by the White House (see related story).

Gone from the president's vocabulary yesterday evening at the Permian Basin drilling site was the phrase "energy of the past" when referring to oil. Obama used that description just last week in an energy speech in Maryland. In the same speech, Obama said that since oil companies are making record profits, the tax breaks that the industry receives are "inexcusable" and that "it's time for this oil industry giveaway to end."

The president was noticeably more delicate in his handling of the oil industry yesterday.

"I want American oil companies to do well," Obama declared. "I have said, though, it doesn't make sense for us to continue providing a $4 billion subsidy" to the industry through the tax code.

"Instead of investing tax dollars in profitable companies, let's invest in our future," he added. "Let's allocate these subsidies in a smart kind of way."

He also made a promise of continued commitment to oil drilling.

"You have my word we will keep drilling everywhere we can, and we will do it while protecting the health and safety" of Americans, the president said.

Republicans quickly rolled their eyes at the president's assurances.

"New Mexicans are faced with the threat of losing their jobs in the oil fields as a direct result of this administration's determination to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered," Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) said in a quick response to the president's speech.

"His visit did little to address these concerns, just as his energy policies have done little to actually help increase oil production. The president claims that he is increasing production, but the reality is that his policies are killing oil and gas jobs and have resulted in the decline of oil production on federal land."

In his brief 11-minute speech, the president continued to hammer home one of his favorite statistics in the drilling debate, that Americans use 20 percent of the world's oil resources while accounting for 2 percent of the supply.

But he also offered a new statistic last night, courtesy of a new report from the Associated Press. The recent study of 36 years of statistical data found that increases in domestic drilling historically have not affected gas prices. Specifically, the study found no statistical correlation between U.S. domestic oil production and monthly, inflation-adjusted gasoline prices.

That is because the price of oil is set on the world market, Obama told the crowd of about 200 people who came out to hear his speech. So the only solution, he declared, is to find ways to increase fuel efficiency and wean American reliance on foreign oil while investing in alternative energy solutions.

"If we do nothing, every time there's instability at the Middle East, we will feel it at the pump," Obama said on a day that the average national price of a gallon of gas hit $3.86.

Obama touts renewable energy

Earlier in the day, in a speech at the largest U.S. photovoltaic facility in Boulder City, Nev., Obama touted his administration's commitment to renewable energy as a key component to his all-of-the-above energy policy.

In that speech, Obama lashed out at members of Congress who choose not to embrace investments in new technology and would rather subsidize "taxpayer giveaways to an industry that's rarely been more profitable."

Noting the vast solar field he was speaking in front of, Obama said that "if some politicians had their way, there won't be any more public investment in solar energy." He continued, "I mean, think about that mindset, that attitude that says because something is new, it must not be real. If these guys were around when Columbus set sail, they'd be charter members of the Flat Earth Society."

While not mentioning the name of the infamous Solyndra solar energy company, which went bankrupt after receiving over half-a-billion dollars in government loans, Obama did once again note that not every new energy project the government funds is going to pan out.

But, he said, "we've got to make sure that we're taking some risks. We've got to make sure that we're making the investments that are necessary. We've got to support extraordinary entrepreneurs that are on the cutting edge."

But Republicans, including GOP presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, weren't sold by Obama's solar pitch.

"This is one of those interesting left-wing ideas, which works theoretically as long as it's not real," Gingrich said on the campaign trail yesterday, according to a Fox News report. "And then you put in a half billion dollars and you go, 'Oh, that didn't quite work.'"