Remarks of Senator Barack Obama—as prepared for delivery

New Energy for America

Michigan State University
Monday, August 4th, 2008
Lansing, Michigan

We meet at a moment when this country is facing a set of challenges
greater than any we've seen in generations.  Right now, our brave men
and women in uniform are fighting two different wars while terrorists
plot their next attack.  Our changing climate is placing our planet in
peril.  Our economy is in turmoil and our families are struggling with
rising costs and falling incomes; with lost jobs and lost homes and
lost faith in the American Dream.  And for too long, our leaders in
Washington have been unwilling or unable to do anything about it.

That is why this election could be the most important of our lifetime.
 When it comes to our economy, our security, and the very future of
our planet, the choices we make in November and over the next few
years will shape the next decade, if not the century.  And central to
all of these major challenges is the question of what we will do about
our addiction to foreign oil.

Without a doubt, this addiction is one of the most dangerous and
urgent threats this nation has ever faced – from the gas prices that
are wiping out your paychecks and straining businesses to the jobs
that are disappearing from this state; from the instability and terror
bred in the Middle East to the rising oceans and record drought and
spreading famine that could engulf our planet.

It's also a threat that goes to the very heart of who we are as a
nation, and who we will be.  Will we be the generation that leaves our
children a planet in decline, or a world that is clean, and safe, and
thriving?  Will we allow ourselves to be held hostage to the whims of
tyrants and dictators who control the world's oil wells?  Or will we
control our own energy and our own destiny?  Will America watch as the
clean energy jobs and industries of the future flourish in countries
like Spain, Japan, or Germany?  Or will we create them here, in the
greatest country on Earth, with the most talented, productive workers
in the world?

As Americans, we know the answers to these questions. We know that we
cannot sustain a future powered by a fuel that is rapidly
disappearing.  Not when we purchase $700 million worth of oil every
single day from some the world's most unstable and hostile nations –
Middle Eastern regimes that will control nearly all of the world's oil
by 2030.  Not when the rapid growth of countries like China and India
mean that we're consuming more of this dwindling resource faster than
we ever imagined.  We know that we can't sustain this kind of future.

But we also know that we've been talking about this issue for decades.
 We've heard promises about energy independence from every single
President since Richard Nixon.  We've heard talk about curbing the use
of fossil fuels in State of the Union addresses since the oil embargo
of 1973.

Back then, we imported about a third of our oil.  Now, we import more
than half.  Back then, global warming was the theory of a few
scientists.  Now, it is a fact that is melting our glaciers and
setting off dangerous weather patterns as we speak.  Then, the
technology and innovation to create new sources of clean, affordable,
renewable energy was a generation away.  Today, you can find it in the
research labs of this university and in the design centers of this
state's legendary auto industry.  It's in the chemistry labs that are
laying the building blocks for cheaper, more efficient solar panels,
and it's in the re-born factories that are churning out more wind
turbines every day all across this country.

Despite all this, here we are, in another election, still talking
about our oil addiction; still more dependent than ever. Why?

You won't hear me say this too often, but I couldn't agree more with
the explanation that Senator McCain offered a few weeks ago.  He said,
"Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been thirty years in the
making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to
think long-term about the future of the country."

What Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those thirty
years, he was in Washington for twenty-six of them.  And in all that
time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  He voted
against increased fuel efficiency standards and opposed legislation
that included tax credits for more efficient cars.  He voted against
renewable sources of energy.  Against clean biofuels.  Against solar
power.  Against wind power.  Against an energy bill that – while far
from perfect – represented the largest investment in renewable sources
of energy in the history of this country.  So when Senator McCain
talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything
about our energy crisis, it's important to remember that he's been a
part of that failure. Now, after years of inaction, and in the face of
public frustration over rising gas prices, the only energy proposal
he's really promoting is more offshore drilling – a position he
recently adopted that has become the centerpiece of his plan, and one
that will not make a real dent in current gas prices or meet the
long-term challenge of energy independence.

George Bush's own Energy Department has said that if we opened up new
areas to drilling today, we wouldn't see a single drop of oil for
seven years.  Seven years.  And Senator McCain knows that, which is
why he admitted that his plan would only provide "psychological"
relief to consumers.  He also knows that if we opened up and drilled
on every single square inch of our land and our shores, we would still
find only three percent of the world's oil reserves.  Three percent
for a country that uses 25% of the world's oil.  Even Texas oilman
Boone Pickens, who's calling for major new investments in alternative
energy, has said, "this is one emergency we can't drill our way out
of."

Now, increased domestic oil exploration certainly has its place as we
make our economy more fuel-efficient and transition to other,
renewable, American-made sources of energy.  But it is not the
solution.  It is a political answer of the sort Washington has given
us for three decades.

There are genuine ways in which we can provide some short-term relief
from high gas prices – relief to the mother who's cutting down on
groceries because of gas prices, or the man I met in Pennsylvania who
lost his job and can't even afford to drive around and look for a new
one.  I believe we should immediately give every working family in
America a $1,000 energy rebate, and we should pay for it with part of
the record profits that the oil companies are making right now.

I also believe that in the short-term, as we transition to renewable
energy, we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and
natural gas.  But we should start by telling the oil companies to
drill on the 68 million acres they currently have access to but
haven't touched. And if they don't, we should require them to give up
their leases to someone who will.  We should invest in the technology
that can help us recover more from existing oil fields, and speed up
the process of recovering oil and gas resources in shale formations in
Montana and North Dakota; Texas and Arkansas and in parts of the West
and Central Gulf of Mexico.  We should sell 70 million barrels of oil
from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for less expensive crude, which
in the past has lowered gas prices within two weeks.  Over the next
five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum
Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production.  And we should also tap
more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the
Canadian government to finally build the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline,
delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process.

But the truth is, none of these steps will come close to seriously
reducing our energy dependence in the long-term.  We simply cannot
pretend, as Senator McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this
problem.  We need a much bolder and much bigger set of solutions.  We
have to make a serious, nationwide commitment to developing new
sources of energy and we have to do it right away.

Last week, Washington finally made some progress on this.  A group of
Democrat and Republican Senators sat down and came up with a
compromise on energy that includes many of the proposals I've worked
on as a Senator and many of the steps I've been calling for on this
campaign.  It's a plan that would invest in renewable fuels and
batteries for fuel-efficient cars, help automakers re-tool, and make a
real investment in renewable sources of energy.

Like all compromises, this one has its drawbacks.  It includes a
limited amount of new offshore drilling, and while I still don't
believe that's a particularly meaningful short-term or long-term
solution, I am willing to consider it if it's necessary to actually
pass a comprehensive plan.  I am not interested in making the perfect
the enemy of the good – particularly since there is so much good in
this compromise that would actually reduce our dependence on foreign
oil.

And yet, while the compromise is a good first step and a good faith
effort, I believe that we must go even further, and here's why –
breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our
generation will ever face.  It will take nothing less than a complete
transformation of our economy.  This transformation will be costly,
and given the fiscal disaster we will inherit from the last
Administration, it will likely require us to defer some other
priorities.

It is also a transformation that will require more than just a few
government programs.  Energy independence will require an
all-hands-on-deck effort from America – effort from our scientists and
entrepreneurs; from businesses and from every American citizen.
Factories will have to re-tool and re-design.  Businesses will need to
find ways to emit less carbon dioxide.  All of us will need to buy
more of the fuel-efficient cars built by this state, and find new ways
to improve efficiency and save energy in our own homes and businesses.

This will not be easy.  And it will not happen overnight.  And if
anyone tries to tell you otherwise, they are either fooling themselves
or trying to fool you.

But I know we can do this.  We can do this because we are Americans.
We do the improbable.  We beat great odds.  We rally together to meet
whatever challenge stands in our way.  That's what we've always done –
and it's what we must do now.  For the sake of our economy, our
security, and the future of our planet, we must end the age of oil in
our time.

Creating a new energy economy isn't just a challenge to meet, it's an
opportunity to seize – an opportunity that will create new businesses,
new industries, and millions of new jobs.  Jobs that pay well.  Jobs
that can't be outsourced.  Good, union jobs.  For a state that has
lost so many and struggled so much in recent years, this is an
opportunity to rebuild and revive your economy.  As your wonderful
Governor has said, "Any time you pick up a newspaper and see the terms
'climate change' or 'global warming,' just think: 'jobs for
Michigan.'"  You are seeing the potential already.  Already, there are
50,000 jobs in your clean energy sector and 300 companies.  But now is
the time to accelerate that growth, both here and across the nation.

If I am President, I will immediately direct the full resources of the
federal government and the full energy of the private sector to a
single, overarching goal – in ten years, we will eliminate the need
for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela.  To do this, we
will invest $150 billion over the next ten years and leverage billions
more in private capital to build a new energy economy that harnesses
American energy and creates five million new American jobs.

There are three major steps I will take to achieve this goal – steps
that will yield real results by the end of my first term in office.

First, we will help states like Michigan build the fuel-efficient cars
we need, and we will get one million 150 mile-per-gallon plug-in
hybrids on our roads within six years.

I know how much the auto industry and the auto workers of this state
have struggled over the last decade or so.  But I also know where I
want the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow to be built – not in Japan,
not in China, but right here in the United States of America.  Right
here in the state of Michigan.

We can do this.  When I arrived in Washington, I reached across the
aisle to come up with a plan to raise the mileage standards in our
cars for the first time in thirty years – a plan that won support from
Democrats and Republicans who had never supported raising fuel
standards before.  I also led the bipartisan effort to invest in the
technology necessary to build plug-in hybrid cars.

As President, I will accelerate those efforts to meet our urgent need.
 With technology we have on the shelf today, we will raise our fuel
mileage standards four percent every year.  We'll invest more in the
research and development of those plug-in hybrids, specifically
focusing on the battery technology.  We'll leverage private sector
funding to bring these cars directly to American consumers, and we'll
give consumers a $7,000 tax credit to buy these vehicles.  But most
importantly, I'll provide $4 billion in loans and tax credits to
American auto plants and manufacturers so that they can re-tool their
factories and build these cars.  That's how we'll not only protect our
auto industry and our auto workers, but help them thrive in a 21st
century economy.

What's more, these efforts will lead to an explosion of innovation
here in Michigan.  At the turn of the 20th century, there were
literally hundreds of car companies offering a wide choice of steam
vehicles and gas engines.  I believe we are entering a similar era of
expanding consumer choices, from higher mileage cars, to new electric
entrants like GM's Volt, to flex fuel cars and trucks powered by
biofuels and driven by Michigan innovation.

The second step I'll take is to require that 10% of our energy comes
from renewable sources by the end of my first term – more than double
what we have now.  To meet these goals, we will invest more in the
clean technology research and development that's occurring in labs and
research facilities all across the country and right here at MSU,
where you're working with farm owners to develop this state's wind
potential and developing nanotechnology that will make solar cells
cheaper.

I'll also extend the Production Tax Credit for five years to encourage
the production of renewable energy like wind power, solar power, and
geothermal energy.  It was because of this credit that wind power grew
45% last year, the largest growth in history.  Experts have said that
Michigan has the second best potential for wind generation and
production in the entire country. And as the world's largest producer
of the material that makes solar panels work, this tax credit would
also help states like Michigan grow solar industries that are already
creating hundreds of new jobs.

We'll also invest federal resources, including tax incentives and
government contracts, into developing next generation biofuels. By
2022, I will make it a goal to have 6 billion gallons of our fuel come
from sustainable, affordable biofuels and we'll make sure that we have
the infrastructure to deliver that fuel in place.  Here in Michigan,
you're actually a step ahead of the game with your first-ever
commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, which will lead the way by
turning wood into clean-burning fuel.  It's estimated that each new
advanced biofuels plant can add up to 120 jobs, expand a local town's
tax base by $70 million per year, and boost local household income by
$6.7 million annually.

In addition, we'll find safer ways to use nuclear power and store
nuclear waste.  And we'll invest in the technology that will allow us
to use more coal, America's most abundant energy source, with the goal
of creating five "first-of-a-kind" coal-fired demonstration plants
with carbon capture and sequestration.

Of course, too often, the problem is that all of this new energy
technology never makes it out of the lab and onto the market because
there's too much risk and too much cost involved in starting
commercial-scale clean energy businesses.  So we will remove some of
this cost and this risk by directing billions in loans and capital to
entrepreneurs who are willing to create clean energy businesses and
clean energy jobs right here in America.

As we develop new sources of energy and electricity, we will also need
to modernize our national utility grid so that it's accommodating to
new sources of power, more efficient, and more reliable.  That's an
investment that will also create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and
one that I will make as President.

Finally, the third step I will take is to call on businesses,
government, and the American people to meet the goal of reducing our
demand for electricity 15% by the end of the next decade.  This is by
far the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to reduce our energy
consumption – and it will save us $130 billion on our energy bills.

Since DuPont implemented an energy efficiency program in 1990, the
company has significantly reduced its pollution and cut its energy
bills by $3 billion.  The state of California has implemented such a
successful efficiency strategy that while electricity consumption grew
60% in this country over the last three decades, it didn't grow at all
in California.

There is no reason America can't do the same thing.  We will set a
goal of making our new buildings 50% more efficient over the next four
years.  And we'll follow the lead of California and change the way
utilities make money so that their profits aren't tied to how much
energy we use, but how much energy we save.

In just ten years, these steps will produce enough renewable energy to
replace all the oil we import from the Middle East.  Along with the
cap-and-trade program I've proposed, we will reduce our dangerous
carbon emissions 80% by 2050 and slow the warming of our planet.  And
we will create five million new jobs in the process.

If these sound like far-off goals, just think about what we can do in
the next few years.  One million plug-in hybrid cars on the road.
Doubling our energy from clean, renewable sources like wind power or
solar power and 2 billion gallons of affordable biofuels.  New
buildings that 50% more energy efficient.

So there is a real choice in this election – a choice about what kind
of future we want for this country and this planet.

Senator McCain would not take the steps or achieve the goals that I
outlined today.  His plan invests very little in renewable sources of
energy and he's opposed helping the auto industry re-tool.  Like
George Bush and Dick Cheney before him, he sees more drilling as the
answer to all of our energy problems, and like them, he's found a
receptive audience in the very same oil companies that have blocked
our progress for so long.  In fact, he raised more than one million
dollars from big oil just last month, most of which came after he
announced his plan for offshore drilling in a room full of cheering
oil executives.  His initial reaction to the bipartisan energy
compromise was to reject it because it took away tax breaks for oil
companies.  And even though he doesn't want to spend much on renewable
energy, he's actually proposed giving $4 billion more in tax breaks to
the biggest oil companies in America – including $1.2 billion to
Exxon-Mobil.

This is a corporation that just recorded the largest profit in the
history of the United States. .  This is the company that, last
quarter, made $1,500 every second.  That's more than $300,000 in the
time it takes you to fill up a tank with gas that's costing you more
than $4-a-gallon.  And Senator McCain not only wants them to keep
every dime of that money, he wants to give them more.

So make no mistake – the oil companies have placed their bet on
Senator McCain, and if he wins, they will continue to cash in while
our families and our economy suffer and our future is put in jeopardy.

Well that's not the future I see for America.  I will not pretend the
goals I laid out today aren't ambitious.  They are. I will not pretend
we can achieve them without cost, or without sacrifice, or without the
contribution of almost every American citizen.

But I will say that these goals are possible.  And I will say that
achieving them is absolutely necessary if we want to keep America safe
and prosperous in the 21st century.

I want you all to think for a minute about the next four years, and
even the next ten years.  We can continue down the path we've been
traveling.  We can keep making small, piece-meal investments in
renewable energy and keep sending billions of our hard-earned dollars
to oil company executives and Middle Eastern dictators.   We can watch
helplessly as the price of gas rises and falls because of some foreign
crisis we have no control over, and uncover every single barrel of oil
buried beneath this country only to realize that we don't have enough
for a few years, let alone a century.  We can watch other countries
create the industries and the jobs that will fuel our future, and
leave our children a planet that grows more dangerous and unlivable by
the day.

Or we can choose another future.  We can decide that we will face the
realities of the 21st century by building a 21st century economy.  In
just a few years, we can watch cars that run on a plug-in battery come
off the same assembly lines that once produced the first Ford and the
first Chrysler.  We can see shuttered factories open their doors to
manufacturers that sell wind turbines and solar panels that will power
our homes and our businesses.  We can watch as millions of new jobs
with good pay and good benefits are created for American workers, and
we can take pride as the technologies, and discoveries, and industries
of the future flourish in the United States of America.  We can lead
the world, secure our nation, and meet our moral obligations to future
generations.

This is the choice that we face in the months ahead. This is the
challenge we must meet.  This is the opportunity we must seize – and
this may be our last chance to seize it.

And if it seems too difficult or improbable, I ask you to think about
the struggles and the challenges that past generations have overcome.
Think about how World War II forced us to transform a peacetime
economy still climbing out of Depression into an Arsenal of Democracy
that could wage war across three continents.  And when President
Roosevelt's advisors informed him that his goals for wartime
production were impossible to meet, he waved them off and said
"believe me, the production people can do it if they really try."  And
they did.

Think about when the scientists and engineers told John F. Kennedy
that they had no idea how to put a man on the moon, he told them they
would find a way.  And we found one.  Remember how we trained a
generation for a new, industrial economy by building a nationwide
system of public high schools; how we laid down railroad tracks and
highways across an entire continent; how we pushed the boundaries of
science and technology to unlock the very building blocks of human
life.

I ask you to draw hope from the improbable progress this nation has
made and look to the future with confidence that we too can meet the
great test of our time.  I ask you to join me, in November and in the
years to come, to ensure that we will not only control our own energy,
but once again control our own destiny, and forge a new and better
future for the country that we love.  Thank you.