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Senator Marco Rubio laid out his energy policy Friday at BOC Water Hydraulics, which makes drilling equipment, in Salem, OhioCredit Scott R. Galvin/Associated Press

SALEM, Ohio — Senator Marco Rubio traveled on Friday to eastern Ohio, with its vast underground natural gas deposits, and laid out an energy policy that would rely on drilling and hydraulic fracturing and roll back many of the most aggressive components of President Obama’s environmental agenda.

Mr. Rubio said he would immediately allow construction of the Keystone XLoil pipeline to go forward, which Mr. Obama has yet to commit to. Mr. Rubio would also permit more offshore oil and gas drilling, which the president has already expanded, and effectively nullify an international climate change accord the administration is pursuing.And he vowed to reverse Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas emissions and hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, to allow the extraction of gas buried deep in the ground near places like Salem.Taking issue with what he described as a Democratic “fear campaign” against fracking, he said that the hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of natural gas and oil underneath the ground “are doing the people of Ohio no good pent-up in shale rock.”Continue reading the main storyIf his words left any doubt about the intended beneficiaries of his energy plan, the setting he chose spoke volumes: a company that makes equipment used to drill and refine fossil fuels, BOC Water Hydraulics.Mr. Rubio’s speech emphasized extracting natural resources from the ground, as opposed to investing in less polluting options like wind or solar power, and struck a combative tone. He promised the crowd of about 300 that there would be major differences in how a Rubio administration would balance energy policy with environmental protection and how a Democratic White House would.“It is innovation, not regulation, that will prompt the development of affordable fuel alternatives,” he said. “That is why conservatives, not liberals, have the more sustainable energy agenda.”To emphasize his point, he reached for a religious reference. He said that the Obama administration had issued nearly 30,000 pages of new regulations, which he noted was “about 46 times the length of the Bible.”And he named Hillary Rodham Clinton one of the biggest impediments to growth in the energy industry.“This is what I mean when I say Democrats like Hillary Clinton are outdated,” he said. “They label themselves ‘progressives,’ yet take great pride in opposing economic progress.”Mr. Rubio shares his Republican rivals’ distaste for Mr. Obama’s efforts to negotiate an international accord to combat climate change. And his plan appears explicitly intended to weaken the president’s hand as Mr. Obama tries to reach an agreement with other United Nations members at a climate conference in Paris in December.While Mr. Obama hopes that such a deal will be a cornerstone of his legacy, the ultimate success of the accord hinges on whether his successor will actually carry it out — and Mr. Rubio’s plan makes clear that a President Rubio would not do so. In fact, his plan would require congressional ratification of any international climate agreements, something highly unlikely in the current Republican-led Congress.In the absence of support from Congress, Mr. Obama has relied on new E.P.A rules to push his environmental agenda. In August, he unveiled his most ambitious and contentious regulations to date: a set of limits on planet-warming carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. If enacted, the rules could close hundreds of coal plants in the United States, lower domestic demand for coal and transform the nation’s electricity system to rely more heavily on renewable sources of energy.Less noticeable in Mr. Rubio’s speech was the political subtext. Ohio does not hold one of the early presidential nominating contests, as Iowa and New Hampshire do. But it is home to one of Mr. Rubio’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination: Gov. John Kasich. Mr. Rubio has now visited Ohio, which Republicans will almost certainly have to carry in 2016 to win the White House, several times since August for fund-raising events and campaign rallies.His speech was also certain to please the energy sector executives who pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Republican political campaigns. Environmental groups scoffed at the proposals, saying Mr. Rubio’s plan could have been written by the industry itself.“Senator Rubio’s energy policies may impress the Koch brothers,” said Denis Dison, communications director for the NRDC Action Fund. “But American voters are growing tired of his kind of slavish devotion to old, dirty energy sources that threaten our kids’ futures.”In contrast to how environmental concerns have dominated the Democratic nominating contest, Republicans almost never mention the subject, and when they do, it is often to diminish or dismiss the threat of global warming. Mr. Rubio’s speech was no different. It did not mention the term “climate change” once. In fact, he mocked Democrats for being obsessed with it.“If we elect Hillary Clinton as president,” he said, “an outdated leader who believes President Obama’s restrictions haven’t gone far enough, who believes that energy policy is more about trying to change the weather than it is about empowering our people — then we will miss out on one of the greatest economic opportunities of this century.”Mrs. Clinton has pledged, if elected, to fully carry out and expand on Mr. Obama’s climate change regulations.