." President Jimmy Carter Address to the Nation, April 18, 1977 We will act together. We've recommended that the price, for instance, of new natural gas be raised each year to the average price of domestic oil that would produce the same amount of energy. Launched in November 1964, Mariner 4 carried a television camera and six other science instruments to study Mars and interplanetary read more, Zebulon Pike, the U.S. Army officer who in 1805 led an exploring party in search of the source of the Mississippi River, sets off with a new expedition to explore the American Southwest. It will lead to some higher costs and to some greater inconvenience for everyone. 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 Arab oil embargo of 1973 sent energy prices soaring, and four years later, the impacts were still rippling through the economy. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans. It's a problem that we will not be able to solve in the next few years, and it's likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century. Our Nation's economic and political independence is becoming increasingly vulnerable. to increase our coal production by about two-thirds to more than one billion tons a year; The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are simply running out. place in this century, with the growing use of oil and natural gas. Thank you very much, and good night. I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2 1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. You may be right, but suspicions about the oil companies cannot change the fact that we are running out of petroleum. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Let me try to describe the size and the effect of the problem. ; Carter went on to serve in the US Navy and was sworn in as president in 1977. I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you. Working with Congress, we've now formed a new Department of Energy, headed by Secretary James Schlesinger. Ten years ago, when foreign oil was cheap, we imported just 2 1/2 million barrels of oil a day, about 20 percent of what we used. Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern this Nation. Within 10 years, we would not be able to import enough oil from any country, at any acceptable price. As one of the world's largest producers of coal and oil and gas, why do we have this problem with energy, and why is it so difficult to solve? Conservation is the only way that we can buy a barrel of oil for about $2. We've always been proud, through our history, of being efficient people. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. But our energy problem is worse tonight than it was in 1973 or a few weeks ago in the dead of winter. In this speech, Carter recognizes that Americans have lost faith in government, in part because of the energy crisis. Second, as I've said before, it's designed to meet our important goals for energy conservation, to promote a shift to more plentiful and permanent energy supplies and encourage increased production of energy in the United States. The world price is set by a foreign cartelthe governments of the so-called OPEC nations. Jimmy Carter, Address to the Nation on Energy, Transcript, Miller Center at University of Virginia, April 18, . It's fitting that I'm speaking to you on an election day, a day which reminds us that you, the people, are the rulers of this Nation, that your Government will be as courageous and effective and fair as you demand Last week the Senate sent its version of the legislation to the conference committees, where Members of the House and Senate will now resolve differences between the bills that they've passed. Carter was unable to solve most of the problems plaguing the country during his administration, including an ailing economy and a continuing energy crisis. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, and every interest group. We could endanger our freedom as a sovereign nation to act in foreign affairs. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, April 18, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy, Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity, Miller Center: April 18, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy, March 9, 1977: Remarks at President Carter's Press Conference, May 22, 1977: University of Notre Dame Commencement, September 7, 1977: Statement on the Panama Canal Treaty Signing, November 8, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy, January 19, 1978: State of the Union Address, September 17, 1978: President Carter's Remarks on Joint Statement at Camp David Summit, October 24, 1978: Anti-Inflation Program Speech, December 15, 1978: Speech on Establishing Diplomatic Relations with China, January 23, 1979: State of the Union Address, July 15, 1979: "Crisis of Confidence" Speech. The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. ", "Some of your Cabinet members don't seem loyal. Too few of our utility companies will have switched to coal, which is our most abundant energy source. The nation is shocked when the President tells them to "put on a sweater" instead of turn up the heat (using energy and fuel). The ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are plentiful. We will not be ready to keep our transportation system running with smaller and more efficient cars and a better network of buses, trains, and public transportation. It is the idea which founded our Nation and has guided our development as a people. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives. James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American retired politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. The cost will keep going up. Presidential Speeches | Jimmy Carter Presidency Obviously, this cannot continue. It makes it harder for us to balance our Federal budget and to finance needed programs for our people. We will monitor our progress toward these goals year by year. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. This from a southern Governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this Nation you're just managing the Government. Carter, a liberal president, was heading into a presidential campaign just as a tide of conservatism was rising, led by presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan, who went on to win the 1980 campaign. I can't tell you that these measures will be easy, nor will they be popular. 12874 Into Law," November 4, 1978. More than six months ago, in April, I spoke to you about a need for a national policy to deal with our present and future energy problems, and the next day I sent my proposals to the Congress. I will sign the energy bills only if they meet these tests. 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. Vast amounts of American wealth no longer stay in the United States to build our factories and to give us a better life. These wounds are still very deep. Never speak ill of the dead, the old saying goes, but Jimmy Carter, 98, still lives. There should be only one test for this programwhether it will help our country. No one will be asked to bear an unfair burden. All of us in Government need your help. On January 14, 1981, President Jimmy Carter delivered a farewell address to the nation, thanking his staff and the American people for the opportunity to serve, warning about the continuing threat . Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third changeto strict conservation and to the renewed use of coal and to permanent renewable energy sources like solar power. The fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. On this day in 1979, with energy prices soaring and interest rates spiking, President Jimmy Carter told an anxious nation in a prime-time televised address that it faced "a crisis of. . These are all controversial questions, and the congressional debates, as you can well imagine, are intense. Industry will have to do its part to conserve just as consumers will. Forty years ago tonight, President Jimmy Carter delivered his Address to the Nation on National Energy Policy, better known as the "Moral Equivalent of War" speech. One choice, of course, is to continue doing what we've been doing before. Our energy plan will also include a number of specific goals to measure our progress toward a stable energy system. read more. I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society--business and labor, teachers and preachers, Governors, mayors, and private citizens. In April 1977, under the dark cloud of the energy crisis, President Jimmy Carter told the nation that the difficult effort needed to move beyond the shortages and high prices of that era "will be the moral equivalent of war.". Copyright 2023. ", And this from a religious leader: "No material shortage can touch the important things like God's love for us or our love for one another. I've given you some of the principles of the plan. ", And the last that I'll read: "When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns.". We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem. We can continue using scarce oil and natural gas to generate electricity and continue wasting two-thirds of their fuel value in the process. Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects. On June 30, 1979, a weary Jimmy Carter was looking forward to a few days' vacation in Hawaii, as Air Force One sped him away from a grueling economic summit in Tokyo. He puts forth several initiatives to push the nation towards greater. to reduce gasoline consumption by 10 percent below its. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly. I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. We could endanger our freedom as a sovereign nation to act in foreign affairs. ", "We've got to use what we have. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly. I hope that, perhaps a hundred years from now, the change to inexhaustible energy sources will have been made, and our Nation's concern about energy will be over. The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are simply running out.
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