Ontario’s new energy minister said he had to do a double-take listening to U.S. President Barack Obama vow to steer his country towards green energy in the state of the union address.

“For a second I thought it was our premier speaking,” Brad Duguid said Thursday.

“I know what your question is and no, he did not consult me before writing the speech,” he said.

Obama devoted several sections of his 70-minute speech Wednesday night to talking up the benefits of green energy and the economic opportunities that come with it, a subject dear to Premier Dalton McGuinty’s heart.

“Providing incentives for energy-efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future, because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy,” Obama said.

“And America must be that nation.”

McGuinty was making similar arguments earlier this week when he announced a deal with Korean conglomerate Samsung to build 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power and four factories to supply them.

“This is a verification of the premier’s vision that started a long time ago, that other national leaders are recognizing,” Duguid said. “We’ve got to move towards the next generation of jobs and the next generation economy and the green economy is where you want to place your jurisdiction.”

But Ontario and Obama are both well behind the pacesetters in green energy investment, New Democratic Party energy critic Peter Tabuns said.

“In China, they’re going to spend $200 to $400 million over the next decade in developing green power,” Tabuns said. “I think they’re now the largest solar panel manufacturer in the world. Korea and Japan are investing heavily, they want to catch up.

“Germany has a quarter-million people working in the green power sector,” Tabuns said. “We are very, very late coming to this party.”

And Ontario won’t catch up as long as it plans to maintain current levels of nuclear generation, a commitment that will require billions of dollars as the province’s nuclear fleet ages.

“If you’re going to go big, then in my view you have to do one or the other,” Tabuns said. “Nuclear is extraordinarily expensive and you have to sink hundreds of billions of dollars in it to make it happen.”

Duguid disagreed though and said Ontario will go ahead with both nuclear and green projects.