Gas prices are at an all-time high; Big Oil is receiving massive taxbreaks on top of record profits, while middle America struggles to get by; and the Gulf Coast is still suffering from the BP drilling disaster. So what to do?

President Obama's most recent response? Promote Big Oil's false solutions, despite overwhelming support for standing up to Big Oil, reigning them in, and making them pay their fair share.

The President is faced with some tough choices; I heard them from him first-hand in a meeting one month ago. As 10,000 people descended on Washington, DC for Power Shift 2011, eleven young grassroots leaders and I were invited to the Roosevelt Room to meet with senior White House officials.

When we showed up at the White House we didn't expect the President to be in the meeting, but when he walked in holding a copy of that day's Washington Post story about the 10,000 young people arriving at Power Shift 2011 ("Youth at environment summit unhappy with Obama policies"), we knew we had an opportunity.

President Barack Obama drops by a meeting with PowerShift Leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, April 15, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

We sat down face-to-face with President Obama for a full half-hour, debating our nation's energy future, and ultimately laying down the conclusion we need an 100% clean energy economy, and drawing our line in the sand: "If it's not clean energy, don't call it that."

In the month since meeting with the President at Power Shift 2011, we've seen the President speak forcefully and repeatedly about the need to eliminate handouts for Big Oil and shift those subsidies to clean energy investments.

However, as we told President Obama in that meeting, our generation will not be satisfied by rhetoric, to win over young people we need to see action. This weekend was a perfect example of the President's contradictory dance with Big Oil that is frustrating his base.