For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 24, 2001
Remarks by the President to Environmental Youth Award Winners
The State Dining Room
Listen to the President's
Remarks
3:15 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very
much. It's my honor to be here. First, Christie Todd,
you're doing a great job. I knew I was going to pick -- I
knew she was going to do a great job when I picked her. I
didn't realize how good. And she really is -- I'm proud to
have her on my team.
I want to thank the parents who are
here. I know it's a proud moment for you, and it should
be. It means you've done your job.
I always like to remind folks who are lucky
enough to have a child, the important job you'll ever have is to love
your children and to be a good mom and dad. I want to thank
the sponsors who are here, and I look forward to thanking you all
personally after this brief speech. (Laughter.) Please
don't break out in applause. (Laughter.)
The Congress is back, and it's good to see
three fine members of the Congress here. I thank you guys
for coming -- Zach Wamp of Tennessee, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Wally
Herger of California. Thank you guys for being
here. I know you're here to represent your constituents, and
I know you're proud of your constituents, just like we are as well.
But most particularly, I want to thank the
winners. I had the opportunity of having my picture taken
with the winners, and it looks like I might have a chance to have a few
more after this is over. (Laughter.) Right,
guy? (Laughter.) For three decades now, the
Environmental Protection Agency has helped to carry out our national
commitment to the wise care of the environment. The agency
has worked with many private citizens who understand that each have a
duty to be good stewards of the land and life around us. And
that's what we're honoring today.
Interesting thing is, is that we're honoring
youngsters. You would think that the old folks would be the
ones leading the charge in America and many places. But it's
our young who are doing so -- particularly when it comes to cleaning up
an environment, and for that we're grateful. It really does
speak to a great future for America, I think.
And rather than going through all the
impressive accomplishments, just like Christie Todd did, I do want to
talk a little bit about good environmental policy. It starts
with a commitment. And my administration has a commitment to
clean air and clean water and good soils.
Laura and I are fortunate enough to own a
ranch in Central Texas. I like to remind everybody that if
you own your own land, every day is Earth Day. If you live
off the land, the people who care more about that than the people who
live off the land -- the reason I bring that up is because I want -- a
good policy understands the proper role of the federal
government. The proper role of the federal government is to
set high standards, to set goals, but it's to work with local folks to
achieve those goals.
Not all wisdom is in Washington, D.C., as
witnessed by what took place up here. All of us in
Washington don't have all of the answers to all of the
problems. Our job is to work in a collaborative way with
people at the local level. As Christie Todd said, we'll fund
more, and we will.
We've got money in our budget to fully fund
the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the first time. It
says we'll work with local folks who set aside lands that need to be
protected. We've got money in our budgets to repair the
national parks; when, here, the federal government is talking about a
clean world and a clean environment, and yet, we're not even keeping
our own parks, we're not fulfilling our own responsibilities.
It seems like to me, if we want to set a good
example for the rest of the country, we've got to take care of what
we're -- over which we're in charge. And we're going to do
so at the federal level.
We've got some regulatory policy in place that
makes sense. But it says we're going to make decisions based
upon sound science, not some environmental fad or what may sound good
-- that we're going to rely on the best of evidence before we decide.
Ours is a policy that truly believes that
technologies have advanced to the point where we can have economic
growth and sound environmental policy go hand in hand. Oh,
there's a lot of talk recently about energy. And for those of you in
California, you know we need more energy. For those of you
who are living in the biggest state in our Union, who have suffered
blackouts -- and some of us think there may be more blackouts coming --
we've got to come up with an energy policy for America.
But I firmly believe we can do so and protect
the environment. The whole world doesn't have to be
zero-sum. It doesn't have to be that we find more energy
and, therefore, the environment suffers. You see, we've got
technologies available now to make sure that we explore and protect the
environment at the same time. And we need to do
that. We need to be good stewards of the land.
But we've also got to understand if we don't
bring more natural gas to the markets, we're going to have
blackouts. We've also got to understand in order to power
the power-generating plants that are now being built in California, we
need more energy. And I want to assure the young up here
that this is an administration committed to good, sound
policy. And it's an administration that firmly believes that
the technologies that develop to the point where we can be good
stewards of the land and at the same time, bringing the energy to
market that we need.
We'll base decisions on sound
science. We'll call upon the best minds of America to help
us achieve an objective -- not only here at home, but around the world
-- which is cleaner air, cleaner water and better use of our land.
It's such a wonderful inspiration to see the
young of America standing up here who are setting a good example for
all of us. And so, on behalf of our government and the
American people, I want to congratulate the winners, their parents and
their sponsors.
God bless you all, and God bless
America. (Applause.)
END
3:22 P.M. EDT
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