For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 19, 2001
Radio Address by the President to the Nation
Listen to the President's Remarks
THE PRESIDENT: Good
morning. This week I outlined a new energy strategy for our
nation -- more than 100 specific recommendations to promote energy
conservation, enlarge and diversify our energy supply, and modernize
the networks that link energy producers to energy
consumers.
We need to act to protect family
budgets. Since 1998, the energy bill of the average family
has skyrocketed by 25 percent. That's a hardship for every
family. We need to act to prevent more -- and more
widespread -- blackouts. Blackouts disrupt businesses and
put public health and safety at risk. We need to act to
reduce our reliance on foreign crude oil.
And if we fail to act, our environment will
suffer, as government officials struggle to prevent blackouts in the
only way possible -- by calling on more polluting emergency backup
generators and by running less efficient old power plants too long and
too hard. So we will act, to protect our economy and to
safeguard our environment.
Too often Americans are asked to take sides
between energy production and environmental protection. The
truth is, energy production and environmental protection are not
competing priorities. Both can be achieved with new
technology and a new vision.
Most of the new electric power plants we build
over the next 20 years will be fueled by clean and safe natural
gas. Many of the others will be powered by wind, solar,
hydropower, nuclear, and other energy sources that emit no pollution at
all. New cars emit 95 percent less pollution than cars built
30 years ago. And my energy plan fosters the development of
a new generation of cars that is even cleaner still.
Wise regulation and
American innovation will make this country the world's leader in energy
efficiency and conservation in the 21st century. We will use
less and less additional energy to fuel more and more economic
growth. Yet even as we grow more efficient, we will always
require some additional energy to power our expanding
economy.
Advanced new technologies allow entrepreneurs
to find oil, and to extract it in ways that leave nature
undisturbed. Where oil is found underneath sensitive
landscapes, rigs can now stand miles away from the oil field, and tap
the reservoir at an angle. In Arctic sites like ANWR, we can
build roads on ice that literally melt away when summer comes, and the
drilling stops to protect wildlife.
I was just in Pennsylvania and paid a visit to
the Susquehanna River. After years of being endangered,
American shad have been restored to this great waterway -- and the fish
are thriving alongside the dam that is generating emission-free
hydroelectric power to meet the needs of Pennsylvania's
people.
It's time to leave behind rancorous old arguments and build a positive
new consensus. With new technology, sound regulation, and
plain good sense, we can expand our energy production while protecting
the environment. And that is exactly what my energy approach
is designed to do.
Thank you for listening.
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