U.S. President Barack Obama said he wants the United States emerge on top in the "peaceful competition" to become the world leader in new energy technology.

"Countries on every corner of this Earth now recognize that energy supplies are growing scarcer, energy demands are growing larger and rising energy use imperils the planet we will leave to future generations," Obama said Friday in a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

"From China to India, from Japan to Germany, nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to produce and use energy," he said.

"The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy. I'm convinced of that and I want America to be that nation — it's that simple," Obama said.

He also used the speech to press for passage of comprehensive energy legislation to make renewable energy profitable.

"Everybody in America should have a stake in legislation that can transform our energy system into one that's far more efficient, far cleaner and provides energy independence for America," he said.

Obama added that he believed consensus was growing on the energy issue, adding that "nay-sayers are being marginalized."

"There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy, when it's the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs," he said.