Obama mocks GOP candidates as members of 'Flat-Earth Society'

President Barack Obama on Thursday went after his potential Republican opponents for their resistance to green energy solutions, likening them to members of the "Flat-Earth Society."

In a speech at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland, the president said that the U.S. should pursue an "all-of-the-above strategy" for developing new energy sources, including renewable energies like solar, wind and biofuels.

"Here's the sad thing," Obama explained to the friendly crowd. "Lately we've heard a lot of professional politicians -- a lot of the folks who are running for a certain office, who shall go unnamed -- they've been talking down new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power. They dismiss solar power. They make jokes about biofuels. They were against raising fuel standards. I guess they like gas guzzlers. They think that's good for our future."

"We've heard this kind of thinking before," he added. "If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail -- they must have been founding members of the Flat-Earth Society. They would not have believed that the world was round."

All three of the remaining Republican frontrunners -- Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum -- have blasted Obama's energy policy and called for more focus on exploiting oil and natural gas sources.

Gingrich has made a running joke about not being able to put a gun rack on Chevrolet's electric car, the Volt. He has also repeatedly mocked the idea of algae biofuels.

At a recent event in northeastern Ohio, Romney dismissed renewable energy, declaring that "you can't drive a car with a windmill on it."

Watch this video from CNN, uploaded March 15, 2012.

(H/T: ABC News)