Jimmy Carter's Energy Speech of April 1977 (Is President Obama going Carter's way?)
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The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are simply running out. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about 6 percent a year. Imports have doubled in the last 5 years. Our Nation’s economic and political independence is becoming increasingly vulnerable. Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980’s the world will be demanding more oil than it can produce.
The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day, and demand increases each year about 5 percent. This means that just to stay even we need the production of a new Texas every year, an Alaskan North Slope every 9 months, or a new Saudi Arabia every 3 years. Obviously, this cannot continue.
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Our national energy plan is based on 10 fundamental principles.
The
first principle is that we can have an effective and comprehensive energy policy only if the Government takes responsibility for it and if the people understand the seriousness of the challenge and are willing to make sacrifices.
The
second principle is that healthy economic growth must continue. Only by saving energy can we maintain our standard of living and keep our people at work. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
The
third principle is that we must protect the environment. Our energy problems have the same cause as our environmental problems—wasteful use of resources. Conservation helps us solve both problems at once.
The
fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. 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.
The
fifth principle is that we must be fair. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, and every interest group. Industry will have to do its part to conserve just as consumers will. The energy. producers deserve fair treatment, but we will not let the oil companies profiteer.
The
sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce demand through conservation. Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts. Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy. Conservation is the only way that we can buy a barrel of oil for about $2. It costs about $13 to waste it.
The
seventh principle is that prices should generally reflect the true replacement cost of energy. We are only Cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford.
The
eighth principle is that Government policies must be predictable and certain. Both consumers and producers need policies they can count on so they can plan ahead. This is one reason that I’m working with the Congress to create a new Department of Energy to replace more than 50 different agencies that now have some control over energy.
The
ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are plentiful. We can’t continue to use oil and gas for 75 percent of our consumption, as we do now, when they only make up 7 percent of our domestic reserves. We need to shift to plentiful coal, while taking care to protect the environment, and to apply stricter safety standards to nuclear energy.
The
tenth and last principle is that we must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy that we will rely on in the next century.
https://www.masterresource.org/carter-jimmy/jimmy-carter-energyspeech-april-1977/
Obama’s speech on solar energy April 3, 2015
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Since I took office, solar electricity has gone up twentyfold. And our investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency haven’t just helped to cut carbon pollution, they’ve made us more energy independent. And they’ve helped us create a steady stream of high-wage, good-paying, middle-class jobs.
This morning, we learned that our businesses created another 129,000 new jobs in March. And that adds up to 3 million jobs over the past year, more than 12 million new jobs over the past five years — and that’s the longest stretch of private sector job creation on record. But we’ve got to be relentless in our work to grow the economy and create good jobs.
Parts of the globe have seen their economies weaken. Europe has had a weaker economy; Asia has been slowing down. We have had the strongest economy, but we’re impacted by what happens around the world. And that’s why we have to redouble our efforts to make sure that we’re competitive, to make sure that we’re taking the steps that are needed for us to be successful.
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And what I’m doing here today is to highlight the fact that the solar industry is actually adding jobs 10 times faster than the rest of the economy. They’re paying good jobs — they’re good-paying jobs that are helping folks enter into the middle class. And today what we’re going to try to do is to build on the progress that’s already been made.
I’m announcing a new goal to train 75,000 workers to enter the solar industry by 2020. As part of this, we’re creating what we’re calling a “Solar Ready Vets” program that’s modeled after some successful pilot initiatives that have already been established over the last several years. It’s going to train transitioning military personnel for careers in this growing industry at 10 bases — including right here at Hill.
And as part of this effort, we’re also going to work with states to enable more veterans to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill for solar job training. And it’s one of the many steps that we’re taking to help nearly 700,000 veterans and military spouses get a job. In fact, about 30 percent of the federal workforce is now made up of veterans. I’ve said it before, and I think employers are starting to catch on, if you really want to get the job done, hire a veteran.
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http://fox13now.com/2015/04/03/read...r-energy-as-delivered-at-hill-air-force-base/
As of November 2014, the solar industry employs 173,807 solar workers, representing a growth rate of 21.8% since November 2013.
Over the next 12 months, employers surveyed expect to see total employment in the solar industry increase by 20.9% to 210,060 solar workers.
Of the 173,807 solar workers in the United States, approximately 157,500 are 100% dedicated to solar activities.
The installation sector remains the single largest source of domestic employment growth, more than doubling in size since 2010.
http://www.thesolarfoundation.org/solar-jobs-census/national/
Yeah, not when the tax subsidizes are up next year.
A bit of creative accounting in the sales pitches though.
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