For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 19, 2001
Remarks by the President in Photo Opportunity after Meeting with National Energy Policy Development Group
The Cabinet Room
4:50 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for
coming. I appreciate the Vice President calling this
meeting. It's a meeting to bring me up to speed as to what
the committee that we put together to look at the energy situation in
America, where we are. His group is making good
progress. Obviously, this is an issue that this
administration takes very seriously. We've assembled senior
members of the Cabinet to analyze the situation and to come up with
recommendations.
It is clear from first analysis that demand
for energy in the United States is increasing, much more so than
production is. And, as a result, we're finding in certain
parts of the country that we're short on energy. And this
administration is concerned about it. And we will make a
recommendation to the country as to how to proceed.
But one thing is for certain, there are no
short-term fixes; that the solution for our energy shortage requires
long-term thinking and a plan that we'll implement that will take time
to bring to fruition. It not only includes good
conservation, but as well, exploration for oil and gas and coal,
development of energy sources that exist within our 50 states.
It also requires good foreign policy, and
that's -- in order to increase the amount of energy available for
American consumers, we've to work closely with our neighbors to the
north and the south, which we will do.
And so, Mr. Vice President, thank
you. You've done good work and we look forward to reporting
to the nation when your report is final.
Q Mr. President, during
the campaign you said that you'd be able to work with our allies in
OPEC to get them to restrain the prices. Given what happened
over the weekend, what went wrong? Do you consider it a
direct rebuff to your administration's entreaty? And what
are you going to do about it?
THE PRESIDENT: The OPEC nations are
responding to decreased demand. World demand, they think, is going to
decrease and, therefore, they've responded with a million barrel cut.
The piece of good news in their decision was
that the Saudi minister made it clear that he and his friends would not
allow the price of oil, crude oil to exceed $28 a
barrel. That's very comforting to the American consumer, and
I appreciate that gesture. I thought that was a very strong
statement of understanding, that high prices of crude oil will affect
our economy.
Having said that, it's important for American
consumers to understand that if we have a price spike in refined
product, it's not going to be because of the price of crude oil being
at $25 or $26 a barrel. It's going to be because we don't
have enough capacity, refining capacity -- we're not generating enough
product. And that's another issue that we'll be dealing
with, is how to make sure we can get refined product to our consumers.
Q So this cut in
production won't have an impact on gasoline prices this summer?
THE PRESIDENT: We don't think
so. We think that the major -- the major impact on gasoline
prices, if they go up, is a result of not generating enough supply,
enough refined product to meet the demand of U.S.
drivers. And we haven't built a refining in 25 years in
America. We're not generating enough gasoline to meet
demands. It's the same as natural gas. We're not
exploring for enough natural gas to meet demand; we're not building
enough power generating plants to meet demand, and we're beginning to
pay the price for it.
America has got to understand that energy is
an issue and we're going to deal with it.
Q Mr. President, you
say there are no short-term fixes, but are you considering, or will you
consider short-term options in case there are shortages this summer,
such as tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
THE PRESIDENT: We've been through
that before. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is meant for a
national emergency when it comes to war. There are some things we can
do. We can work with California, at the governor's request,
to expedite permitting. And Administrator Whitman has done
an excellent job of working with California to encourage and enable
California to more speedily build plants.
The energy crunch we're in is a supply and
demand issue. And we need to reduce demand and increase
supply. The best public policy is to understand that, and
that's what we're going to do.
Q Mr. President, what
about tapping Mexico's oil reserves? Have you thought about
what that --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we had a good
discussion. I had a very good discussion with Vicente
Fox. And Secretary Abraham had a very good discussion with
his counterpart from Mexico. Mexico has to make the decision
as to whether or not they will be willing to allow foreign capital to
explore for oil and gas in their country. That's the Mexican
decision to make.
I encouraged the President to begin allowing
foreign capital to explore for natural gas in Mexico. It
would be to our benefit. Gas is hemispheric. An
MCF of gas found in Mexico is beneficial for the United States and
Canada, even though it's found in Mexico. And the Vice
President and I have had discussions with Prime Minister Chretien about
exploration for natural gas.
A good energy policy is one that understands
we've got energy in our hemisphere and how best to explore for it and
transport it to markets. So, you bet, we've continued
discussions with Mexico, as well as Canada.
Q The black religious
leaders that you met with this afternoon, they emerged from the meeting
and were very highly complimentary of you and your faith-based
plan. Were you encouraged about the meeting that you had
with them as much as they were? And how crucial is their
support to your faith-based initiative?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the black
ministers with whom I met are very crucial for helping change the
neighborhoods and communities in which they live. Many of
those preachers are bishops over churches that have got great programs
and change people's hearts and provide hope in neighborhoods where
there is no hope.
So I view them not as agents of politics, I
view them as agents of change. And they are supportive of
our efforts to empower people to be able to make choices as to where to
find services and help. And I am supportive of their efforts
to provide help where help is needed. And I really
appreciate them coming, so I was very encouraged by the meeting.
END 4:56
P.M. EST
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