For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 18, 2001
Remarks by the President at Safe Harbor Water Power Corporation
Conestoga, Pennsylvania
Listen to the President's Remarks
11:25 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very
much. Please be seated. Well, Governor, thank you
very much. It's an honor to be back in your beautiful
state. I'm glad you told me you were overseas recently -- I
thought you might have been boycotting my last visit to your state --
(laughter) -- which was Monday. (Laughter.)
Laura and I consider Tom and Michelle close,
personal friends, as well as political allies. And I know
the people of Pennsylvania consider him to be an excellent governor,
because he is one. (Applause.)
I want to thank you all for
coming. And I also want to thank the hundreds of citizens
that lined the road as we came in, to wave. It makes a
fellow feel pretty good to see all the flags and the
salutes. This is a wonderful place to come, not only because
it speaks volumes about the policy that I'm going to address today, but
it also reminds me of how wonderful our country is, how good and solid
the people are that inhabit the great land called America.
So if you see any of them that were on the
road coming in, tell them the President says, thanks a lot for the
hospitality.
I'm also honored to be traveling today with
members of the United States Congress. The United States
Senator -- I was going to say, the Senior Senator, but I'm looking for
some votes from him. (Laughter.) But that's Alren
Specter, who is doing a great job for the people of
Pennsylvania. (Applause.) And the younger
senator, Senator Rick Santorum, as well. (Applause.)
As well, a friend of mine from the great state
of Alaska is with us, Chairman of the Energy Committee, Frank
Murkowski. (Applause.) I think old Frank must be
looking for a cup of coffee somewhere. (Laughter.)
We also have the Congressman from this area,
Congressman Todd Platts. Where are you, Todd? There you go,
thank you, buddy. (Applause.) And Congressman Joe
Pitts and Congressman George Gekas, as well, from the state of
Pennsylvania. (Applause.)
And we're pleased as well to have a member of
the United States Congress from the west who, like Murkowski, takes
great interest in energy policy, and that's Congressman Jim Hansen,
from the state of Utah. Thank you Mr.
Chairman. (Applause.) I want to thank
Marshall Kaiser and the hard working employees of Safe Harbor, who made
our visit so special. Thank you for making all the arrangements, and
thanks for setting up this spectacular place to deliver a few remarks
and to sign some important documents.
You know, when I ran for office, I told the
people of our country that I would put together a Cabinet of some of
the finest Americans that would be -- who would be willing to
serve. And I did so. I'm blessed with a great
Cabinet. And two of the fine Cabinet members are here with
us, Spence Abrham and Christie Todd Whitman. And I thank
them so much for their leadership. (Applause.)
I was pretty plain spoken about what I
intended to do, should I be fortunate enough to become the
President. And when I put my hand on the Bible that day,
right afterwards I intended to get to work. I said, it's
time to get -- time to get after it, time to do in office what I said I
would do. And that's what's taken place in Washington.
First, I said if I happened to be the
President, I was going to fight for meaningful, real tax relief, to
make sure the working people got to put some of that surplus in their
pockets. And we're about to have tax cuts for the American
people. (Applause.)
And my call to Congress is to get it done
before Memorial Day, to get the money to the people before the great
Memorial Day holiday, so people have got more money to spend and
save. (Applause.) And more money in their pockets
to take care of some of these energy prices that exist as a result of
the failure to have an energy plan for America.
Secondly, I said, give us a chance and we'd
put together a group of congressmen and senators to pass meaningful,
real reform over education system; one that would empower local folks,
to give more power at the local level. Because we recognize
one size does not fit all when it comes to the education of the
children; but also one that says if you receive federal money, show us
whether or not children are learning to read and write and add and
subtract, because we want to know. (Applause.)
We want to know whether or not the very faces
of our future are learning and, if they're not -- if they're not, we
won't sit idly by in America. When we find youngsters who
can't read, we'll correct the problems early, before it's too
late. Because our motto is, not one single child will be
left behind in America. (Applause.)
I told the people of our country we would
boost the morale of the military by having a clear mission and also
making sure our troops were better paid and better
housed. And my budget reflects that commitment to the
military.
And I told the people during the campaign that
we've got a problem with energy in America. Our demand is
going up, and the supplies aren't going up with demand and, therefore,
there is pressure on price. I said it in the campaign and
I'm saying it to you now: this nation must adopt a national
energy plan to make sure our consumers and workers and entrepreneurs
have the capacity to realize the visions of a better life that we all
have for America.
And so, yesterday, I gave a speech that did
just that. A speech that recognizes we have a
problem. I figured I was elected to solve problems, if there
are problems -- not just to hold the office, but to solve
problems. And so we laid out a plan that has a hundred
different proposals -- more than a hundred proposals as to how to get
after this energy problem we face and what to do about it.
And it starts with encouraging and enhancing
conservation efforts all around America. We can do a better
job of conserving in this country. We can have policies that
encourage conservation. We can have research that yields to
better methodology for conservation.
But all of us must do a better job of
conserving, as well. Each of us must be mindful of being
conscious about wasting electricity. We're going to have
better cars, I'm convinced of it, that have better mileage, rely less
upon hydrocarbons. We'll have better homes, many of which
will be powered by solar energy. This future is fantastic
for the country. And a lot of it is based upon good, sound
conservation measures.
But as I reminded the people yesterday, a
state that has done a fantastic job in conservation has been the state
of California. They're the second-best at conservation
measures. And, yet, they're lacking energy, they're having
blackouts. And we all must be deeply concerned about our
fellow citizens in the great state of California.
But the problems in California shows that you
cannot conserve your way to energy independence. That not
only do we need to have good conservation, but we must have a
diversified base of supply, including hydroelectric
supply. (Applause.)
And I also talked about the need to make sure
that we had a modern infrastructure, to be able to get energy from the
power plant to the light switch; that we've got to do a better job of
modernizing the capacity to move not only electricity, but products
like natural gas from point A to point B, in order to have an energy --
to have a country where we have abundant and cheaper and safer and
cleaner energy sources.
So this is a vision that recognizes, one, we
have a problem, and the willingness to confront it. But,
two, a vision that relies upon common sense, and it relies upon
ingenuity of the American people and the entrepreneurial instincts of
our country.
And it's great to be here in Pennsylvania,
because Pennsylvania is a state that's on the forefront of
diversification and conservation. And it's an appropriate
place to be, because this dam is a symbol of the new age of
environmental possibilities. It's powering Pennsylvania's
economy, while at the same time restoring Pennsylvania
wildlife. It goes to show that economic growth and a good
environmental policy do not have to be zero-sum. It doesn't
have to be either/or.
And one of the most important things we've got
to do in this country is change the tone about the debate about
economic growth and the environment. You know, it seems like
recently, those of us who used to not be in Washington, we'd be looking
up there and seeing that people would rather argue than
discuss. They'd rather call names, rather than come up with
solutions. They'd rather point fingers at people, rather
than holding out the hand of constructive dialogue. And it's
got to change.
And this is an administration that's committed
-- committed -- to putting the people ahead of politics, and talking
about dialogue. (Applause.) And discussing important issues
in a way that will bring honor to the process. So that when
youngsters look up at our nation's Capitol, they're proud of what they
see.
And we laid out a plan and I hope there's
good, honorable debate about the plan. Because it's based
upon common sense and it's based upon hope and it's based upon new
technologies.
I think it's very important for our country to
realize what Spence talked about, and that is the need to make sure we
diversify our energy supplies. It's important to do so for
national security reasons, for starters. As I mentioned
yesterday in Iowa, we went to a place that was doing research on
biomass and value added processing.
And I said to the folks there, I said, I would
much rather have our economy powered by crops grown in Iowa than
barrels of oil coming out of
Iraq. (Applause.) It's in our nation's interest
that we diversify. It's in our nation's interest that we
become less dependent upon nations, some of which really don't care for
what we believe in. And I believe we can do so.
Now, that's going to mean we've got to
understand the power and promise of nuclear energy, that we've got to
be willing to discuss nuclear energy and recognize that nuclear power
is much safer than it's ever been. And at the same time, use sound
science to help us find the right place to store the product of nuclear
power.
It means we've got to understand the hope and
promise of natural gas and be willing to explore for natural gas in
places that heretofore have been off limits, such as remote areas of
Alaska.
I want you all to understand that the debate
about ANWR is one that is not based -- as far as I'm concerned -- based
upon sound fact. You see, first of all, ANWR, what we're
talking about is 2,000 acres amongst, I believe it's 19 million acres.
Secondly, the technology has changed so that
one is able to have a single drill site and explore for reservoir miles
away from the drill site.
Thirdly, the explorationists are willing to
only move equipment during the winter, which means they'll be on ice
roads, and remove the equipment as the ice begins to melt, so that the
fragile tundra is protected.
People have got to understand that it's
possible that we could find, and likely find, 600,000 barrels of oil a
day out of ANWR. That's what we import from Saudi -- I mean,
from Iraq. It makes sense, folks, for us to have an
environmentally sensitive exploration plan in America, in order to
diversify supply, not only for national security reasons, but for
international reasons, as well.
We need more natural gas in
America. Natural gas is a clean burning
fuel. There's a lot of it. But in order to find
it, we're going to have to move it by pipeline. And we need
more pipeline. And we need safer pipelines. And
technology allows us to do so.
There's a lot of discussion about alternative
sources of energy. Hydroelectric power is one, and our nation must
welcome hydroelectric power as a renewable resource. They
talk about solar energy. We're very much in support of the
alternative forms of energy. I hope some day that these
renewables will be the dominant source of energy in
America. I'm not so sure how realistic that
is. But, nevertheless, they'll play an integral part of the
energy mix in America. And my administration, through
incentives and research, will encourage them to be.
I firmly believe we can solve this
problem. I know we can't solve it without a plan, and that's
why I've laid one out. I know we can't solve it without an
administration being willing to say, this is a tough issue, but we want
to tackle it, we want to take it on, we want to lead the people. And
so we're willing to do that. It's right for America that we
do so. It's the right thing for this country. It's the
right thing for people who are coming up in a land, that want to
realize their dreams. And it's right to change the tone in
Washington, D.C., as well. And we need your help to do so.
When you hear these folks, it doesn't matter
what side of the debate they're on, or are willing to kind of castigate
somebody who may have a good idea. Stand up and let them
have it. (Applause.) This is too important an
issue. It's too important an issue to allow the rhetoric to
deteriorate.
And so what I'm here to tell you is that
you've got an administration that's willing to take the lead on a tough
issue. Administrations can bring some common sense practice to energy
policy; and an administration that is willing to talk, not only about
conservation, but enhancing supply, and the means to get supply to
those who use it; an administration who understands the responsibility
of the high offices that we hold; an administration that looks forward
to working with my fellow Americans to get it done.
I said yesterday, and I know it's true, that
we're going to lead the world when it comes to energy, and how to do
it, and how to balance our needs and still have economic growth; and
how to have good environmental policy with economic
growth. Because one thing we're not short of, we may be
short of certain forms of energy, but we're not short of the American
spirit. We're not short of innovative
people. We're not short of hard-working
Americans. We're not short of the entrepreneurial
spirit. As a matter of fact, we've got plenty of --
plentiful supply of all those. And as a result, this great nation is
going to be a leader, not a follower, when it comes to energy
policy. (Applause.)
Yesterday I talked about the need for us to
act. And today, I have the honor of acting. I'm
going to sign two executive orders to promote energy
security. And I'm honored to do so right here in the great
state of Pennsylvania. (Applause.) I'm sure there
were some folks that were watching the speech or heard about the
speech, probably saying, yes, all we've got now is another report
that's going to sit on a shelf in Washington, just to gather a little
dust.
I can assure the American people that mine is
an administration that's not interested in gathering
dust. We're interested in acting. And so today,
one of the executive orders will bring new energy projects online
faster, and that's especially important this year, as we end -- as we
work together to end the blackouts in California. And the
other will ensure that the federal government pays due attention to
energy when it makes decisions, because the fuel that powers our
economy should never be a second thought.
To bring projects faster online, I'm ordering
all federal agencies to expedite their review of energy related
permits, while maintaining safety, public health and environmental
protections. These protections are vital, and so is
energy. And we don't want to either -- we don't want either
of them snarled in bureaucratic tangles, as local governments or
entrepreneurs seek permit after permit from agency after
agency. This executive order creates an inter-agency task
force to examine how to move good projects through the federal
bureaucracy as quickly as possible.
And to underscore my administration's
commitment to reconciling energy production and environmental
protection, the task force will be chaired by the Chairman of the
Council of Environmental Quality.
The next executive order prods the federal
government to take America's energy supplies very
seriously. Any federal agency that proposes a major
regulatory action that significantly affects energy must, from now on,
file a statement of energy impact if the decision will have an adverse
affect on energy supply, distribution or use. And the agency
must describe what reasonable alternatives to its decision may exist.
The statement of energy impact is not a red
light, preventing any agency from taking any action. It is a
yellow light that says, pause and think before you make decisions that
squeeze consumer's pocketbooks, that may cause energy shortages or that
may make us more dependent on foreign energy.
These two orders are the next steps toward a
brighter energy future. Thank you for joining me as I sign
them. (Applause.)
(The executive orders were
signed.) (Applause.)
11:47 A.M. EDT
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