President Obama on Tuesday night called on Americans to move away from reliance on oil and develop alternative sources of energy, The New York Times reported. The president cast the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill as an imperative for Congress to act quickly to overcome “a lack of political courage and candor.”

Speaking to a national television audience for the first time from the Oval Office, Obama also promised a long-term plan to make sure that the Gulf Coast states suffering from the oil spill are made whole again. He said he was appointing Ray Mabus, the secretary of the Navy and the former governor of Mississippi, to develop a Gulf Coast restoration plan in cooperation with states, local communities, tribes, fishermen, conservationists and Gulf residents.

The government on Tuesday released a new estimate of the amount of oil flowing from the well. It said as much as 60,000 barrels could be spewing into the Gulf of Mexico each day, about double the estimate last week of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels a day.

The new estimate, reflecting the increased oil flow that began after a pipe was deliberately cut to help capture some of the oil coming from the well, continues a pattern in which every new estimate has been sharply higher than the one before. With the broken well’s owner, BP plc, capturing roughly 15,000 barrels a day, the new estimate suggests that as much as 45,000 barrels a day is escaping into the Gulf, punctuating the scale of the substantive and political problems facing Obama.

“Today, as we look to the Gulf, we see an entire way of life being threatened by a menacing cloud of black crude,” Obama said. “We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.”

The president said he had authorized the use of 17,000 National Guard members to help with the cleanup effort, but only a small number have actually been dispatched by the governors in the region even though Obama has said that BP will pick up the cost. He also continued to strike an adversarial tone toward BP.

“We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes,” he said. “We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever is necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.”