(Image Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Facing attacks on his energy policies amid rising gas prices, President Obama has gone on the offensive, touting the progress his administration has made in reducing reliance on foreign oil.

The White House today released a new "progress report" spotlighting the administration's "historic achievements" and successful efforts to make the country more energy independent and save Americans money at the pump.

"When President Obama took office, America imported 11 million barrels of oil a day. By the end of last year, that number dropped to 8.4 million barrels per day," the report states.

The 20-page report, which marks the one-year anniversary of the president's "Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future," highlights the administration's efforts to expand domestic oil and gas production, implement new fuel economy standards and develop alternative fuels.

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

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

Spiking gas 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.

"With this report, the president is celebrating his recipe for four or five dollar gas," a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "Poll after poll show Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the president's work on gas prices. And rather than embrace Republican efforts to increase American energy production, all he's offering is a history lesson of how we got here."