Cunanan had no criminal record before the spring of 1997, when he began a killing read more, During a live television and radio broadcast, President Richard Nixon stuns the nation by announcing that he will visit communist China the following year. His remarks were broadcast live on radio and television. Thank you very much. I will listen and I will act. They were more convenient and cheaper than coal, and the supply seemed to be almost without limit. Jimmy Carter, "Address to the Nation on Energy," April 18, 1977 (excerpts). We ourselves are the same Americans who just 10 years ago put a man on the Moon. That's why I've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law--and I have to admit, with just mixed success. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. As a people we know our past and we are proud of it. Point four: I'm asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our Nation's utility companies cut their massive use of oil by 50 percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source. --to insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings; We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. During the 1960's, we used twice as much as during the 1950's. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends. We know the strength of America. ", "If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow. We have the ability to administer the new energy legislation, and congressional work on the National Energy Plan has now reached the final stage. You don't like it, and neither do I. At one point, he talked about the possibility of read more, The critically acclaimed 2002 biopic Walk The Line depicts the life and career of Johnny Cash from his initial rise to stardom in the 1950s to his resurgence following a drug-fueled decline in the 1960s. This problem has come upon us suddenly. Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem that is unprecedented in our history. We've always been proud of our leadership in the world. We will use research and development projects, tax incentives and penalties, and regulatory authority to hasten the shift from oil and gas to coal, to wind and solar power, to geothermal, methane, and other energy sources. President Jimmy Carter (b. They want lower taxes on their profits. These are all controversial questions, and the congressional debates, as you can well imagine, are intense. Within 10 years, we would not be able to import enough oil from any country, at any acceptable price. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. We can begin to prepare right now. President Carter was elected to office several years after the 1973 Oil Embargo, which devastated the gas turbine market in the United State. 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. We could endanger our freedom as a sovereign nation to act in foreign affairs. Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. Inflation will soar; production will go down; people will lose their jobs. Imports have doubled in the last 5 years. Good evening. It hurts every American family. . First, it's fair both to the American consumers and to the energy producers, and it will not disrupt our national economy. But our energy plan also reflects the optimism that I feel about our ability to deal with these problems. And third, it protects our Federal budget from any unreasonable burden. The eighth principle is that Government policies must be predictable and certain. A graduate of the U.S. The first was about 200 years ago, when we changed away from wood--which had provided about 90 percent of all fuel--to coal, which was much more efficient. - Jimmy Carter, Energy Address to the Nation, April 18, 1977. But the sacrifices can be gradual, realistic, and they are necessary. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world. Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy. More than 6 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. What can we do? Intense competition for oil will build up among nations and also among the different regions within our own country. But our energy problem is worse tonight than it was in 1973 or a few weeks ago in the dead of winter. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem? This change became the basis of the Industrial Revolution. In the late 1970s, the United States faced a variety of challenges, including high inflation, rising interest and unemployment rates, and an energy crisis created by . We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, and every interest group. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter addresses the nation via live television to discuss the nation's energy crisis and accompanying recession. But you did not choose your elected officials simply to fill an office. read more. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. It unbalances our Nation's trade with other countries. Several of our discussions were on energy, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. The fifth principle is that we must be fair. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan, and Sweden. Now we need efficiency and ingenuity more than ever. ", "There will be other cartels and other shortages. that it be. Address to the Nation on Energy | The American Presidency Project Jimmy Carter 39th President of the United States: 1977 1981 Address to the Nation on Energy April 18, 1977 Good evening. The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are simply running out. Carter retreated to Camp David, where he met with Americans from various backgrounds and spoke . The . 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. We will feel mounting pressure to plunder the environment. No one will gain an unfair advantage through this plan. Presidential Speeches | Jimmy Carter Presidency We've always been proud of our leadership in the world. I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. Carter became a one-term president after Reagan defeated him in a blowout victory in 1980, but Carter's political defeat intensified his lifelong quest to know whether he had done his best and . By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us. It is the idea which founded our Nation and has guided our development as a people. This from a young woman in Pennsylvania: "I feel so far from government. The Middle East has only 5 percent of the world's energy, but the United States has 24 percent. 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 . With God's help and for the sake of our Nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. This energy plan is a good insurance policyfor the future, in which relatively small premiums that we pay today will protect us in the years ahead. Our farmers are the greatest agricultural exporters the world has ever known, but it now takes all the food and fiber that we export in 2 years just to pay for 1 year of imported oilabout $45 billion. In his speech, President Carter called the crisis "the moral equivalent o Washington, D.C., has become an island. I said 6 months ago that no one would be completely satisfied with this National Energy Plan. Twice in the last several hundred years, there has been a transition in the way people use energy. Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. They are the ones that we must provide for now. But we do have a choice about how we will spend the next few years. Carter prefaced his talk about energy policy with an explanation of why he believed the American economy remained in crisis. Many of these proposals will be unpopular. The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day, and demand increases each year about 5 percent. The ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are plentiful. Another very important question before Congress is how to let the market price for domestic oil go up to reflect the cost of replacing it while, at the same time, protecting the American consumers and our own economy. Note: The President spoke at 8 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford. We've always been proud of our ingenuity, our skill at answering questions. I have faith that meeting this challenge will make our own lives even richer. It will lead to some higher costs and to some greater inconvenience for everyone. With every passing month, our energy problems have grown worse. Our Nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. Presidential Speeches | Jimmy Carter Presidency All of us have heard about the large oil fields on Alaska's North Slope. ", This was a good one: "Be bold, Mr. President. I'm sure that each of you will find something you don't like about the specifics of our proposal. Gradually, you've heard more and more about what the Government thinks or what the Government should be doing and less and less about our Nation's hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly. Nearly everyone who is alive today grew up during this period, and we have never known anything different. Democrat Jimmy Carter served as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. The choices facing the Members of Congress are not easy. I hope that each of you will take steps to conserve our precious energy and also join with your elected officials at all levels of government to meet this test of our Nation's judgment and will. The nation is shocked when the President tells them to "put on a sweater" instead of turn up the heat (using energy and fuel). We are only Cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford. What is being measured is the strength and will of our Nationwhether we can acknowledge a threat and meet a serious challenge together. We've always wanted to give our children and our grandchildren a world richer in possibilities than we have had ourselves. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans. Our children who will be born this year will come of age in the 21st century. Along with that money that we transport overseas, we will continue losing American jobs and become increasingly vulnerable to supply interruptions. Unfortunately, that prediction has turned out to be right. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest.