jimmy carter address to the nation on energy24 Apr jimmy carter address to the nation on energy
During the 1950's, people used twice as much oil as during the 1940's. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, and every interest group. This has already started. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice. It will be money well spent. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge that our country will face during our lifetime. "We can't go on consuming 40 percent more energy than we produce. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, November 8, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy, Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity, Miller Center: November 8, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy, September 7, 1977: Statement on the Panama Canal Treaty Signing, January 19, 1978: State of the Union Address, September 17, 1978: President Carter's Remarks on Joint Statement at Camp David Summit, October 24, 1978: Anti-Inflation Program Speech, December 15, 1978: Speech on Establishing Diplomatic Relations with China, January 23, 1979: State of the Union Address, July 15, 1979: "Crisis of Confidence" Speech, January 23, 1980: State of the Union Address, April 25, 1980: Statement on the Iran Rescue Mission, August 14, 1980: Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention. During the subsequent campaign, Goldwater said that he thought the United States should do whatever was necessary to win in Vietnam. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices. These are all controversial questions, and the congressional debates, as you can well imagine, are intense. Three-quarters of them would carry only one personthe driverwhile our public transportation system continues to decline. They want lower taxes on their profits. Jimmy Carter, Address to the Nation on Energy Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/243395, The American Presidency ProjectJohn Woolley and Gerhard PetersContact, Copyright The American Presidency ProjectTerms of Service | Privacy | Accessibility, Saturday Weekly Addresses (Radio and Webcast) (1639), State of the Union Written Messages (140). World consumption of oil is still going up. Amid looming concern regarding the scarcity of oil resources President Carter delivers a message in stark terms, urging Americans to band together in order to eliminate the wasting of energy resources. The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are simply running out. It will lead to some higher costs and to some greater inconvenience for everyone. We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. That's why I've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law--and I have to admit, with just mixed success. More than 6 months ago, in April, I spoke to you about a need for a national policy to deal with our present and future energy problems, and the next day I sent my proposals to the Congress. In it, Carter singled out a pervasive "crisis of confidence" preventing the American people from moving the country forward. I'm announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. Inflation will soar; production will go down; people will lose their jobs. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, April 18, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy, Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity, Miller Center: April 18, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy, March 9, 1977: Remarks at President Carter's Press Conference, May 22, 1977: University of Notre Dame Commencement, September 7, 1977: Statement on the Panama Canal Treaty Signing, November 8, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy, January 19, 1978: State of the Union Address, September 17, 1978: President Carter's Remarks on Joint Statement at Camp David Summit, October 24, 1978: Anti-Inflation Program Speech, December 15, 1978: Speech on Establishing Diplomatic Relations with China, January 23, 1979: State of the Union Address, July 15, 1979: "Crisis of Confidence" Speech. Twice in the last several hundred years, there has been a transition in the way people use energy. Tonight I want to examine in a broad sense the state of our American Union--how we are building a new foundation for a peaceful and a prosperous world. He also admitted that part of the problem was his failure to provide strong leadership on many issues, particularly energy and oil consumption. Imports have doubled in the last 5 years. This difficult effort will be the "moral equivalent of war," except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not to destroy. Carter ended by asking for input from average citizens to help him devise an energy agenda for the 1980s. The ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are plentiful. Pike was instructed to seek out headwaters of the Arkansas and Red rivers and to investigate read more, Spree killer Andrew Cunanan murders world-renowned Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace on the steps outside his Miami mansion. Carter prefaced his talk about energy policy with an explanation of why he believed the American economy remained in crisis. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. Washington, D.C., has become an island. Whether this plan truly makes a difference will not be decided now here in Washington but in every town and every factory, in every home and on every highway and every farm. We can't substantially increase our domestic production, so we would need to import twice as much oil as we do now. The sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce demand through conservation. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. No one will be asked to bear an unfair burden. In a few years, when the North Slope is producing fully, its total output will be just about equal to 2 years' increase in our own Nation's energy demand. to use solar energy in more than 2 1/2 million houses. ", And the last that I'll read: "When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns.". Although all countries could, of course, be more efficient, we are the worst offender. On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter delivered what became known as his "Crisis of Confidence" or "malaise" speech to the American public on national television. Obviously, this cannot continue. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. President Jimmy Carter (b. If we wait and do not act, then our factories will not be able to keep our people on the job with reduced supplies of fuel. What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. He recounted a meeting he had hosted at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, with leaders in the fields of business, labor, education, politics and religion. A huge box-office hit, the film established Willis as a movie star and spawned three sequels. We have the natural resources. Play Video. They want even higher prices than those we've proposed for "new" gas and oil, and they want the higher prices sooner. Embed. It costs about $13 to waste it. All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. We can protect ourselves from uncertain supplies by reducing our demand for oil, by making the most of our abundant resources such as coal, and by developing a strategic petroleum reserve. We've always believed in something called progress. Copyright 2023. It will demand that we make sacrifices and changes in every life. These are the purposes of the new energy legislation. One problem is that the price of all energy is going up, both because of its increasing scarcity and because the price of oil is not set in a free and competitive market. Our biggest problem, however, is that we simply use too much and waste too much energy. Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem that is unprecedented in our history. This incentive for new oil production would be the highest in the whole world. Each new inventory of world oil reserves has been more disturbing than the last. We can drift along for a few more years. ", "If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow. Iran hostage crisis This from a southern Governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this Nation you're just managing the Government. Jimmy Carter November 08, 1977 Source National Archives Amid looming concern regarding the scarcity of oil resources President Carter delivers a message in stark terms, urging Americans to band together in order to eliminate the wasting of energy resources. We can continue using scarce oil and natural gas to generate electricity and continue wasting two-thirds of their fuel value in the process. View Transcript. It is a crisis of confidence. On June 30, 1979, a weary Jimmy Carter was looking forward to a few days' vacation in Hawaii, as Air Force One sped him away from a grueling economic summit in Tokyo. We are only Cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford. The second principle is that healthy economic growth must continue. Dubbed the Second Battle of the Marne, the conflict ended several days later in a major victory for the Allies. We've always been proud, through our history, of being efficient people. Other generations of Americans have faced and mastered great challenges. The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day, and demand increases each year about 5 percent. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past. World oil production can probably keep going up for another 6 or 8 years. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears. These changes did not happen overnight. They are going up, whether we pass an energy program or not, as fuel becomes more scarce and more expensive to produce. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us. "I am a farmer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a scientist, a governor, and a Christian," Jimmy Carter said while introducing himself to national political reporters when he announced his campaign to be the 39th president of the United States in December 1974.. As journalists and historians consider Carter's legacy, this prelude to Carter's campaign offers insight into how he . For them to pass an effective and fair plan, they will need your support and your understandingyour support to resist pressures from a few for special favors at the expense of the rest of us and your understanding that there can be no effective plan without some sacrifice from all of us. We can begin to prepare right now. The most important thing about these proposals is that the alternative may be a national catastrophe. Our consumption of oil would keep going up every year. We've always been proud of our ingenuity, our skill at answering questions. On July 15, 1978, the Longest Walka 2,800-mile trek for Native American justice that had started with several hundred marchers in Californiaends in Washington, D.C., accompanied by thousands of supporters. And this year we may spend $45 billion. These are the goals that we set for 1985: They will endure. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment. We know the strength of America. One choice, of course, is to continue doing what we've been doing before. We need to shift to plentiful coal, while taking care to protect the environment, and to apply stricter safety standards to nuclear energy. We could endanger our freedom as a sovereign nation to act in foreign affairs. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process rebuild the unity and confidence of America. They made possible the age of automobile and airplane travel. Intense competition for oil will build up among nations and also among the different regions within our own country. One of the most enduring aspects of Jimmy Carter's presidency is his green legacy he embraced environmental stewardship and renewable energy with an . Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change--to strict conservation and to the renewed use of coal and to permanent renewable energy sources like solar power. Both consumers and producers need policies they can count on so they can plan ahead. These are facts and we simply must face them: What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important. The congressional conference committees are now considering changes in how electric power rates are set in order to discourage waste, to reward those who use less energy, and to encourage a change in the use of electricity to hours of the day when demand is low. The first was about 200 years ago, when we changed away from wood--which had provided about 90 percent of all fuelto coal, which was much more efficient. Second, as I've said before, it's designed to meet our important goals for energy conservation, to promote a shift to more plentiful and permanent energy supplies and encourage increased production of energy in the United States. ", And this from a young Chicano: "Some of us have suffered from recession all our lives. place in this century, with the growing use of oil and natural gas. Now we need efficiency and ingenuity more than ever. The seventh principle is that prices should generally reflect the true replacement cost of energy. Intense competition for oil will build up among nations and also among the different regions within our own country. This change became the basis of the Industrial Revolution. I'll read just a few. This lack of moral and spiritual confidence, he concluded, was at the core of Americas inability to hoist itself out of its economic troubles. current level; --to cut in half the portion of U.S. oil which is imported--from a potential level of 16 million barrels to 6 million barrels a day; --to establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than a 6-months supply; --to increase our coal production by about two-thirds to more than one billion tons a year; I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2 1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy. He also pledged a massive commitment of funds and resources to develop alternative fuel sources including coal, plant products and solar power. Although the energy crisis and recession were the main topics of conversation, Carter heard from the attendees that Americans were also suffering from a deeper moral and spiritual crisis. Our national energy plan is based on 10 fundamental principles.