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. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this Nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000. Former President Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.), was the 39 th president of the United States, serving from 1977-1981. These 10 days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my longstanding concerns about our Nation's underlying problems. But sometime in the 1980's, it can't go up any more. In his speech, President Carter called the crisis "the moral equivalent of war" and called on Americans to conserve . Three-quarters of them would carry only one personthe driverwhile our public transportation system continues to decline. They are going up, whether we pass an energy program or not, as fuel becomes more scarce and more expensive to produce. ", And the last that I'll read: "When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns.". We could endanger our freedom as a sovereign nation to act in foreign affairs. I can't be too concerned about other things when I have a 10-year-old daughter to raise and I don't have a job and I'm 56 years old." We should reward individuals and companies who discover and produce new oil and gas, but we must not give them huge windfall profits on their existing wells at the expense of the American people. Jimmy Carter speaks on 'a crisis of confidence,' July 15, 1979 It has been an extraordinary 10 days, and I want to share with you what I've heard. This button displays the currently selected search type. 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. Politics, Carter said, was full of corruption, inefficiency and evasiveness; he claimed these problems grew out of a deeper, fundamental threat to American democracy. He was not referring to challenges to civil liberties or the countrys political structure or military prowess, however, but to what he called a crisis of confidence that led to domestic turmoil and the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation., At a time when Europeans and the Japanese began out-producing the U.S. in energy-efficient automobiles and some other advanced technologies, Carter said that Americans had lost faith in being the worlds leader in progress. He claimed that Americans' obsession with self-indulgence and material goods had trumped spiritualism and community values. I've given you some of the principles of the plan. You know we can do it. Embed. He also admitted that part of the problem was his failure to provide strong leadership on many issues, particularly energy and oil consumption. But I think most of you realize that a policy which does not ask for changes or sacrifices would not be an effective policy at this late date. Pike was instructed to seek out headwaters of the Arkansas and Red rivers and to investigate read more, Spree killer Andrew Cunanan murders world-renowned Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace on the steps outside his Miami mansion. Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern. 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. The history of our Nation is one of meeting challenges and overcoming them. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. The world has not prepared for the future. The Arab oil embargo of 1973 sent energy prices soaring, and four years later, the impacts were still rippling through the economy. ", "If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow. Vast amounts of American wealth no longer stay in the United States to build our factories and to give us a better life. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency . On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter delivered what became known as his "Crisis of Confidence" or "malaise" speech to the American public on national television. The Arab oil embargo of 1973 sent energy prices soaring, and four years later, the impacts were still rippling through the economy. Jimmy Carter 39th President of the United States: 1977 1981 Address to the Nation on Energy and National Goals: "The Malaise Speech" July 15, 1979 Good evening. I will sign the energy bills only if they meet these tests. ", "Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good. These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. Six years ago, we paid $3.7 billion for imported oil. There is not enough discipline among your disciples. Columbia Energy Exchange - Jimmy Carter's Energy Policy Legacy on Stitcher To jumpstart this program, Carter asked Congress to form an energy mobilization board modeled after the War Production Board of World War II, and asked the legislature to enact a windfall profits tax immediately to fight inflation and unemployment. Point six: I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every State, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. The fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. Within 10 years, we would not be able to import enough oil from any country, at any acceptable price. Inflation will soar; production will go down; people will lose their jobs. Jimmy Carter's Energy Policy Legacy Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem that is unprecedented in our history. Copyright 2023. The message was usually focused on energy conservation. There is something especially American in the kinds of changes that we have to make. Jimmy Carter. If we do not act, then by 1985 we will be using 33 percent more energy than we use today. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. We will monitor the accuracy of data from the oil and natural gas companies for the first time, so that we will always know their true production, supplies, reserves, and profits. This difficult effort will be the "moral equivalent of war," except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not to destroy. Three-quarters of them would carry only one person--the driver--while our public transportation system continues to decline. But if we wait, we will constantly live in fear of embargoes. He outlined the creation of a solar bank that he said would eventually supply 20 percent of the nations energy. These are all controversial questions, and the congressional debates, as you can well imagine, are intense. For Jimmy Carter, protecting environment has been an "exhilarating Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. And I'm asking you for your good and for your Nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, and every interest group. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. We waste more energy than we import. Ours is the most wasteful nation on Earth. The fifth principle is that we must be fair. Obviously, this cannot continue. But our energy plan also reflects the optimism that I feel about our ability to deal with these problems. Jimmy Carter, "Address to the Nation on Energy," April 18, 1977 (excerpts). But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. It's important that we promote new oil and gas discoveries and increased production by giving adequate prices to the producers. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. I said 6 months ago that no one would be completely satisfied with this National Energy Plan. The energy crisis is real. It is a certain route to failure. It's crucial that you understand how serious this challenge is. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning. These funds will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment. Good evening. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In it, Carter singled out a pervasive "crisis of confidence" preventing the American people from moving the country forward. When President Jimmy Carter addressed the nation on April 18, 1977, the U.S. was in a crisis. place in this century, with the growing use of oil and natural gas. Our national security depends on more than just our Armed Forces; it also rests on the strength of our economy, on our national will, and on the ability of the United States to carry out our foreign policy as a free and independent nation. April 18, 1977: Address to the Nation on Energy. The former . The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are simply running out. to insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings; Then I became upstate New York chairman of Democrats for Reagan in 1984. Surprising viewers, who were expecting a laundry list of proposals to deal with the energy crisis, Carter took a different tack. On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter addresses the nation via live television to discuss the nation's energy crisis and accompanying recession. I can't tell you that these measures will be easy, nor will they be popular. Supplies will be uncertain. Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. Perspective | What Jimmy Carter's most famous moment can teach the Demand will overtake production. But our energy problem is worse tonight than it was in 1973 or a few weeks ago in the dead of winter. It's worse because more waste has occurred and more time has passed by without our planning for the future. Those citizens who insist on driving large, unnecessarily powerful cars must expect to pay more for that luxury. Just since April, our oil imports have cost us $23 billionabout $350 worth of foreign oil for the average American family. The Congress is facing very difficult decisions, courageously, and we've formed a good partnership. If it were possible to keep it rising during the 1970's and 1980's by 5 percent a year, as it has in the past, we could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade. This incentive for new oil production would be the highest in the whole world. Our biggest problem, however, is that we simply use too much and waste too much energy. One choice, of course, is to continue doing what we've been doing before. History of Solar Power - IER Each American uses the energy equivalent of 60 barrels of oil per person each year. 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. The second change took. We can't substantially increase our domestic production, so we would need to import twice as much oil as we do now. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our Nation. Carter quoted one of the Camp David meeting participants as saying that Americas neck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife. In addition, inflation had reached an all-time high during Carters term. Conservation is the only way that we can buy a barrel of oil for about $2. 12874 Into Law," November 4, 1978. They want lower taxes on their profits. All rights reserved. These are facts and we simply must face them: What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important. We've always been proud, through our history, of being efficient people. January 23, 1979. Exactly 3 years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States. Washington, D.C., has become an island. But the sacrifices can be gradual, realistic, and they are necessary. After a 2015 cancer diagnosis . They made possible the age of automobile and airplane travel. But after listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America. 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. State of the Union Address 1979. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about 6 percent a year. When we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment. We can continue using scarce oil and natural gas to generate electricity and continue wasting two-thirds of their fuel value in the process. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. In 1979, America could still feel the effects of OPECs (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) 1973 cuts in oil production. Intense competition for oil will build up among nations and also among the different regions within our own country. Whether this plan truly makes a difference will not be decided now here in Washington but in every town and every factory, in every home and on every highway and every farm. ", This was a good one: "Be bold, Mr. President. It's a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. The political pressures are great because the stakes are so high, billions and billions of dollars. It costs us business investments. The energy. Nearly everyone who is alive today grew up during this period, and we have never known anything different. There is some part of this complex legislation to which every region and every interest group can object. Our national energy plan is based on 10 fundamental principles. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy secure nation. Unless we act, we will spend more than $550 billion for imported oil by 1985more than $2,500 for every man, woman, and child in America. He proposed a plan to solve the crisis that focused on expanding the government's responsibility, promoting conservation, and expanding the search for oil to previously untapped areas. Now, these 10 principles have guided the development of the policy that I will describe to you and the Congress on Wednesday night. We can regain our unity. But we still have another choice. It's also especially difficult to deal with long-range, future challenges. To some degree, the sacrifices will be painfulbut so is any meaningful sacrifice. Carter prefaced his talk about. This summer we used more oil and gasoline than ever before in our history. America overseas is only as strong as America at home. Jimmy Carter and the Meaning of Malaise - JSTOR Daily to increase our coal production by about two-thirds to more than one billion tons a year; They made possible the age of automobile and airplane travel. The selection of this time span made perfect sense from a Hollywood read more, On July 15, 1988, Die Hard, an action film starring Bruce Willis as wisecracking New York City cop John McClane, opens in theaters across the United States. The Congress has recognized the urgency of this problem and has come to grips with some of the most complex and difficult decisions that a legislative body has ever been asked to make. 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. We can delay insulating our homes, and they will continue to lose about 50 percent of their heat in waste. Now the energy proposal that I made to Congress last April has three basic elements to ensure that it is well balanced. Copyright 2023. Jimmy Carter, "Address to the Nation on Energy," April 18, 1977 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. We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until 10 years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We will act together. We will monitor our progress toward these goals year by year. It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeperdeeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967, and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975.. Carter was born and raised in Plains, Georgia, graduated from the United States Naval . ", Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our Nation. Die Hard also became read more, John Christie, one of Englands most notorious killers, is executed.