Jimmy Carter
Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence
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Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States.
Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977--
never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own
production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on
foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through
the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by
one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over four and a half million barrels of
imported oil per day.
Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set
import quotas. I’m announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this
country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a
reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.
Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime
commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own
alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from
unconventional gas, from the sun.
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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 fifty percent within the next decade and
switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.
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.
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Point six: I’m proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city
and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build
conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford
More:
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/PDFFiles/Jimmy%20Carter%20-%20Crisis%20of%20Confidence.pdf
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