Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

President Obama will promote his energy policy today through a series of local TV interviews taped at the White House.

"Despite the gains we've made, today's high gas prices are a painful reminder that there's much more work to do free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil and take control of our energy future," the president said in a written statement marking the one-year anniversary of his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future. "And that's exactly what our administration is committed to doing in the months ahead."

The renewed push by the White House to sell its energy strategy comes as a new polls shows rising gas prices are becoming an increasingly critical issue on the campaign trail.

Rising gasoline prices have surpassed the federal budget deficit as Obama's single weakest issue, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, which shows 65 percent of Americans disapprove of how the president is handling the rising price of gas, while just 26 percent approve.

The president will pitch his "all-of-the-above" approach to energy production in interviews with stations from Los Angeles, Denver, Austin, Des Moines, Orlando, Cincinnati, Las Vegas and Pittsburgh.

Also today, the president will meet privately at the White House with local elected leaders representing the National League of Cities.