Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Clean Energy at Trinity Structural Towers
Newton, Iowa
April 22, 2009

Thank you all so much for that welcome. It’s a pleasure to be back in Newton and a privilege to be here at Trinity Structural Towers. I just had a terrific tour of this facility led by several of the workers who operate this plant.

It wasn’t too long ago that Maytag closed its operations in Newton. Hundreds of jobs were lost. To have walked these floors then would have been to walk along empty corridors. The only signs of a once-thriving enterprise would have been the markings on cement in the shape of equipment that was boxed up and carted away.

Today, this facility is alive again with new industry. This community continues to struggle, and not everyone has been so fortunate as to be rehired, but more than one hundred people will now be employed at this plant, many the same folks who had lost their jobs when Maytag shut its doors.

Now you’re using the materials behind me to build towers to support some of the most advanced wind turbines in the world. When completed, these structures will hold aloft blades that can generate as much as 2.5 megawatts of electricity – enough energy to power hundreds of homes.

At Trinity, you are helping to lead the next energy revolution. And you are heirs to the last energy revolution.

Roughly a century and a half ago, in the late 1850s, the Seneca Oil Company hired an unemployed train conductor named Edwin Drake to investigate the oil springs of Titusville, Pennsylvania. Around this time, oil was literally bubbling up from the ground – but it had limited economic value and often did little more than ruin crops and pollute drinking water.

Even as some were refining oil for use as a fuel, collecting oil remained time-consuming, back-breaking, and costly, as workers harvested what they could find in the shallow ground. But Edwin Drake had a plan. He purchased a steam engine, built a derrick, and began to drill.

Months passed. Progress was slow. The team managed to drill into the bedrock just a few feet each day. Crowds gathered to mock the hopeful, foolish diggers. The well even earned the nickname, “Drake’s Folly.” But Drake wouldn’t give up. He had an advantage: total desperation.

It just had to work. Then, finally, it did.

One morning, the team returned to the creek to see crude oil rising up from beneath the surface. Soon, Drake’s well was producing a then-astonishing amount of oil – perhaps ten, twenty barrels each day. Speculators followed, building similar rigs as far as the eye could see. In the next decade, the area would produce tens of millions of barrels of oil. And as the industry grew, so too did the ingenuity of those who sought to profit from it, as competitors developed new techniques to drill and transport oil to drive down costs and gain an edge in the marketplace.

Our history is filled with such stories. The stories of daring talent, of dedication to an idea even if the odds were great, of the unshakeable belief that in America, all things are possible.

This has been especially true in energy production. From the first commercially-viable steamboat developed by Robert Fulton to the first modern solar cell developed at Bell Labs; from the experiments of Benjamin Franklin to harness the energy of lightning to the experiments of Enrico Fermi to harness the power contained in the atom, America has led the world in producing and harnessing new forms of energy.

But just as we have led the global economy by developing new sources of energy, we have also led in global consumption of that energy. While we make up less than five percent of the world’s population, we produce roughly a quarter of the world’s demand for oil.

This appetite comes at a tremendous cost to our economy. It’s the cost as measured by our trade deficit; 20 percent of what we spend on imports is the price of our oil imports, as we send billions of dollars overseas to oil-exporting nations. It’s the cost of our vulnerability to the volatility of oil markets. It’s the cost we feel in shifting weather patterns that are already causing record-breaking droughts, unprecedented wildfires, and more intense storms.

And it is a cost we have known ever since the gas shortages of the 1970s. Yet, for more than thirty years, all too little has been done. There’s a lot of talk of action when oil prices are high, but then it slips from the radar when oil prices fall. We shift from shock to indifference time and again, year after year.

We cannot afford to do that anymore – not when the cost for our economy, for our country, and for our planet is so high. On this Earth Day, it is time for us to lay a new foundation for economic growth by beginning a new era of energy exploration in America.

The choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy – it’s a choice between prosperity and decline. We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy. We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc, or we can create jobs working to prevent its worst effects. We can hand over the jobs of the 21st century to our competitors – or we can confront what countries in Europe and Asia have already recognized as both a challenge and an opportunity: The nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy.

America can be that nation. America must be that nation. And while we seek new forms of fuel to power our homes and cars and businesses, we will rely on the same ingenuity – the same American spirit – that has always been a part of our American story.

This will not be easy, and there are no silver bullets. It will take a variety of energy sources, pursued through a variety of policies, to drastically reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels. As I’ve often said, in the short-term, as we transition to renewable energy, we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. We also need to find safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste.

But the bulk of our efforts must focus on unleashing a new, clean energy economy that will begin to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, cut our carbon pollution by about 80 percent by 2050, and create millions of new jobs right here in America.

My administration has already taken unprecedented action toward this goal.

This work begins with the simplest, fastest, most effective way we have to make our economy cleaner, and that is to make our economy more energy efficient. California has shown it can be done; while electricity consumption grew 50 percent in this country over the last three decades, in California, it remained flat.

Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we have begun to modernize 75 percent of all federal building space, which has the potential to reduce long-term energy costs by billions of dollars on behalf of taxpayers. We are providing grants to states to help weatherize hundreds of thousands of homes, which will save the families that benefit about $350 each year. That’s like a $350 tax cut.

Consumers are also eligible as part of the Recovery Act for up to $1,500 in tax credits to purchase more efficient cooling and heating systems, insulation, and windows in order to reduce their energy bills. And I’ve issued a memorandum to the Department of Energy to implement more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances, like dishwashers and refrigerators. Through this step, over the next three decades, we’ll save twice the amount of energy produced by all the coal-fired power plants in America in any given year.

We are already seeing reports from across the country of how this is beginning to create jobs, as local governments and businesses rush to hire folks to do the work of building and installing these energy efficient products.

And these steps wills spur job creation and innovation as more Americans make purchases that place a premium on reducing energy consumption. Businesses across the country will join the competition, developing new products and seeking new customers.

In the end, the sum total of choices made by consumers and companies in response to our recovery plan will mean less pollution in our air and water, reduced costs for families and businesses, and lower reliance on fossil fuels which disrupt our environment and endanger our children’s future.

Energy efficiency, however, can only take us part way. Even as we are conserving energy, we need to change the way we produce energy.

Today, America produces less than 3 percent of our electricity through renewable sources like wind and solar. Meanwhile, Denmark produces almost 20 percent of their electricity through wind. We pioneered solar technology, but we’ve fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in generating it.

I don’t accept that this is the way it has to be. When it comes to renewable energy, I don’t think we have to be followers; I think it’s time for us to lead.

We are now poised to do exactly that. According to some estimates, last year, 40 percent of all new generating capacity in our country came from wind. In Iowa, you know what this means. This state is second only to Texas in installed wind capacity, which more than doubled last year alone. The result? Once shuttered factories are whirring back to life here at Trinity; at TPI Composites where more than 300 workers are manufacturing turbine blades; and elsewhere in this state and across America.

In 2000, energy technology represented just one half of one percent of all venture capital investments. Today, it’s more than 10 percent.

The recovery plan seeks to build on this progress, and encourage even faster growth. We are providing incentives to double our nation’s capacity to generate renewable energy over the next few years – extending the production tax credit, providing loan guarantees, and offering grants to spur investment in new sources of renewable fuel and electricity.

My budget also invests $15 billion each year for ten years to develop clean energy including wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, and clean coal technology.

And today I am announcing that my administration is taking another historic step. Through the Department of Interior, we are establishing a program to authorize – for the first time – the leasing of federal waters for projects to generate electricity from wind as well as from ocean currents and other renewable sources.

This will open the door to major investments in offshore clean energy. For example, there is enormous interest in wind projects off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware and today’s announcement will enable these projects to move forward.

It is estimated that if we fully pursue our potential for wind energy on land and offshore, wind can generate as much as 20 percent of our electricity by 2030, creating as many as 250,000 jobs in the process. As with so many clean energy investments, it’s win-win: good for environment and great for our economy.

Yet, even as we pursue renewable energy from the wind and the sun and other sources, we also need a smarter, stronger electricity grid to carry that energy from one end of this country to the other. That’s why we are making an $11 billion investment through the recovery plan to modernize the way we distribute electricity.

And as we’re taking unprecedented steps to save energy and generate new kinds of energy for our homes and businesses, we need to do the same for our cars and trucks.

Right now, two of America’s iconic automakers are considering their future and facing difficult challenges. But one thing we know is that for automakers to succeed in the future, these companies need to build the cars of the future. Yet, for decades, fuel economy – and fuel economy standards – have stagnated, leaving American consumers vulnerable to the ebb and flow of gas prices, and leaving the American economy ever more dependent on the supply of foreign oil.

We must create the incentives for companies to develop the next generation of clean energy vehicles – and for Americans to drive them.

That is why my administration has begun to put in place higher fuel economy standards for the first time since the mid-1980s – so our cars will get better mileage, saving drivers money and spurring companies to develop more innovative products. The recovery act also includes $2 billion in competitive grants to develop the next generation of batteries for plug-in hybrid cars. We’re planning to buy 17,600 American-made, fuel-efficient cars and trucks for the government fleet. And today, Vice President Biden is announcing a Clean Cities grant program through the Recovery Act to help state and local governments purchase clean energy vehicles, too.

My budget also makes unprecedented investments in mass transit, high-speed rail, and in our highway system to reduce the congestion that wastes money, time, and energy. And it invests in advanced biofuels and ethanol, which, as I’ve said, is an important transitional fuel to help us end our dependence on foreign oil while moving toward clean, homegrown sources of energy.

And while we are creating the incentives for companies to develop these technologies – we are also creating incentives for consumers to adopt these technologies. The Recovery Act includes a new tax credit of up to $7,500 to encourage Americans to buy more fuel-efficient cars and trucks.

In addition, innovation depends on innovators doing the research and testing the ideas that might not pay off in the short run – or at all – but when taken together hold incredible potential over the long term. That is why my Recovery plan includes the largest investment in basic research funding in American history. And my budget includes a ten year commitment to making the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit permanent – a tax credit that returns two dollars to the economy for every dollar we spend.

And this is only the beginning.

My administration will be pursuing comprehensive legislation to move toward energy independence and prevent the worst consequences of climate change – while creating the incentives to make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.

The fact is, we place limits on pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and other harmful emissions. But we haven’t placed any limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This is called the carbon loophole.

Last week, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court, the EPA determined that carbon dioxide and other tailpipe emissions are harmful to the health and wellbeing of our people. There is no question that we have to regulate carbon pollution; the only question is how we do so.

I believe the best approach is through legislation that places a market-based cap on these kinds of emissions. Today key members of my administration are testifying in Congress on a bill that seeks to enact exactly this kind of market-based approach. My hope is that this will be the vehicle through which we put this policy in effect.

Here’s how a market-based cap would work:

We would set a cap on all of the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that our economy is allowed to produce in total, combining the emissions from cars and trucks, coal-fired power plants, energy-intensive industries, and other sources.

By setting a cap, carbon pollution would become like a commodity. It would have a value as a limited resource. To determine that value, much like any other traded commodity, we’d create a market where companies could buy and sell the right to produce a certain amount. In this way, a company can determine for itself whether it makes sense to spend the money to become cleaner or more efficient, or to spend the money on a certain amount of allowable pollution.

Over time, as the cap on greenhouse gases is lowered, the commodity would become scarcer – and the price would go up. Year by year, companies and consumers would have greater incentive to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency, as the price of the status quo became more expensive.

By closing the carbon loophole through this kind of market-based cap, we can address in a systematic way all the facets of the energy crisis: lowering our dependence on foreign oil, reducing our use of fossil fuels, and promoting new industries right here in America.

And as we pursue solutions through the public and private sectors, we also need to remember that every American has a role to play. You know, when I suggested during the campaign that one small step Americans could take would be to keep their tires inflated, it became political fodder for the other side.

But I do not accept the conventional wisdom that suggests that the American people are unable or unwilling to participate in a national effort to transform the way we use energy – that the only thing folks are capable of doing is paying their taxes. I disagree. The American people are ready to be part of this mission.

For example, if each of us replaced just one ordinary incandescent light bulb with one compact fluorescent, that could save enough energy to light 3 million homes. And that’s just one small step.

Finally, this is a global problem, and it will require a global coalition to solve it. Our climate knows no boundaries; the decisions of any nation will affect every nation. Next week, I will be gathering leaders of major economies from around the world to talk about how we can work together to address this energy crisis.

It is true that the United States has been slow to participate in this kind of a process. But those days are now over. We are ready to engage – and we are asking other nations to join us in tackling this challenge together, including those nations that have not been quick to act.

All of the steps we have taken in just these first three months represent perhaps more progress than we have achieved in three decades. We are beginning the difficult work of reducing our dependence on foreign oil. We are beginning to break the bonds of fossil fuels. We are beginning to create a new, clean energy economy – and the millions of jobs that will flow from it.

Yes, there are those who still cling to the notion that we ought to continue on the current course. That government has neither the responsibility nor the reason to address our dependence on energy sources that undermine our security, threaten our economy, and endanger our planet.

But there is also a far more dangerous idea – the idea that there is little or nothing we can do. That our politics are broken, our people unwilling to make hard choices.

Implicit in this argument is that somehow we have lost something important. That perhaps as a result of the very prosperity we have built over the course of generations, we have given up that fighting American spirit, that sense of optimism, that willingness to tackle tough challenges – and the determination to see those challenges to their end.

I reject this argument. I reject it because of what you are doing right here at Trinity. I reject it because of what I have seen across this country, in the eyes of the people I’ve met, in the stories I’ve heard, in the factories I’ve visited, in the places where I’ve seen the future being pieced together – test by test, trial by trial.

Will it be easy? Of course not. There will be bumps along the road. There will be costs for our nation – and for each of us as individuals. There is no perfect answer to our energy needs – and all of us will have to use energy more wisely. But I know that we are ready and able to meet these challenges. All of us are the beneficiaries of a daring and innovative past. I am confident that we can be – that we will be – the benefactors of a brighter future.

That can be our legacy. A legacy of vehicles powered by clean renewable energy traveling past newly opened factories; of burgeoning industries employing millions of Americans in the work of protecting our planet; of an economy exporting the energy of the future – instead of importing the energy of the past; of a nation once again leading the world to meet the challenges of our time.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

Building the American Clean Energy Economy
By Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis

On April 22nd, people across the country and around the world will celebrate Earth Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of our natural resources and taking real action to make a difference.  For decades, while Americans in towns and cities across the country have worked to make a difference in their communities, politicians in both parties in Washington have ignored the energy crisis, imperiling our economy, our security and our planet.  Now, we have a unique and critical opportunity to attack the energy crisis head on and create a comprehensive energy policy that will bolster our economy, end our dependence on foreign oil and reduce the threat of deadly pollution that is devastating our planet.

During his first months in office, President Obama has already taken some important first strides toward those goals as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The Recovery Act included billions of dollars to be invested in cities and states across the country to strengthen our clean energy industry and help restore America’s place at the forefront of the 21st century global economy.

Recently, we visited the Community College of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania where workers at the facility are being trained for the types of green jobs those Recovery Act dollars are funding.  At the community college, these jobs range from the construction and facility upgrades of green buildings to the installation of energy-efficient street lights to conducting energy audits.  In a booming clean energy sector, those jobs will range from research and development to skilled labor jobs like weatherizing to floor shifts at wind and solar facilities.  And these are jobs that cannot be shipped overseas.

This focus on jump-starting the creation of an American clean energy sector will be the foundation of the president’s energy policy.  With the depletion of the world’s oil reserves and the growing disruption of our climate, the development of clean, renewable sources of energy is the growth industry of the 21st century.  Rather than sending billions overseas to pay for these new and developing energy technologies, President Obama believes we should invest those dollars here in American jobs and innovation.  By developing a clean energy economy here at home, we will end our dependence on foreign oil and begin to make America truly energy independent.  That’s not just an economic and environmental imperative, it’s also a national security imperative.

As part of this comprehensive policy, we must crack down on the corporations that pollute the water we drink and the air we breathe.  Cracking down on these polluters in a real way will mean that we can finally tackle global warming and its potentially catastrophic effects – because ultimately, our approach to energy policy and combating the effects of global warming are two sides of the same coin.

We have an enormous, urgent environmental and economic task ahead of us, and it is one that we have ignored for far too long.  If we are going to create clean energy industry jobs in this country, break the stranglehold that foreign oil has on our economy and punish the polluters who are devastating our natural resources, then we’ve got to be honest about the difficult tasks and tough choices ahead.  It’s going to mean telling the special interests that their days of dictating energy policy in this country are over.  It’s going to mean refusing to settle for the status quo and the same ineffective policies that have held us back for over 30 years, created price shocks and fostered energy dependence.  This president is committed to tackling these challenges head on to create a clean energy policy that works for all Americans, so that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren not just a stronger economy, but a cleaner planet.

FACT SHEET: President Obama Highlights Vision for Clean Energy Economy

Underscores Urgent Need to Pass Comprehensive Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Obama traveled to Newton, Iowa today to visit Trinity Structural Towers, the former Maytag appliance factory that now houses a green manufacturing facility, which produces towers for wind energy production and employs dozens of former Maytag employees. Marking Earth Day, President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to a comprehensive energy plan that lessens our dependence on foreign oil, creates jobs and helps win the race toward clean energy technology. With the depletion of the world’s oil reserves and the growing disruption of our climate, the development of clean, renewable sources of energy is the growth industry of the 21st century.

“The choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy – it’s a choice between prosperity and decline,” President Obama said. “The nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy.”

The President’s energy policy will jump-start the creation of an American Clean Energy sector that will create millions of clean energy jobs. The President underscored how jobs at Trinity are examples of the opportunities this sector will create for workers not just in the factories that manufacture wind turbines, but also across the economy, for workers who weatherize our homes and research new technologies.

Today, President Obama unveiled a program to develop the renewable energy projects on the waters of our Outer Continental Shelf that produce electricity from wind, wave, and ocean currents. These regulations will enable, for the first time ever, the nation to tap into our ocean’s vast sustainable resources to generate clean energy in an environmentally sound and safe manner.

President Obama will pursue comprehensive legislation to move toward energy independence and prevent the worst consequences of climate change – while creating the incentives to make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.

To take this country in the right direction, Congress must pass comprehensive legislation to protect our nation from the serious economic and strategic risks associated with our reliance on foreign oil and the destabilizing effects of a changing climate. Policies to advance energy and climate security should promote economic recovery efforts, accelerate job creation, and drive clean energy manufacturing by:

• Creating new Jobs in the Clean Energy Economy. Drive the development of new, green manufacturing opportunities in the rebuilding, retrofitting and modernizing of our nation’s factories.
• Promoting U.S. Competitiveness. Ensure a level playing field for domestic manufacturing and secure significant actions to combat climate change by our trading partners.
• Investing in the Next Generation of Energy Technologies. Invest $150 billion over ten years in energy research and development to transition to a clean energy economy.
• Breaking Dependence on Oil. Promote the development of the next generation of cars and trucks and the fuels they run on.
• Producing More Energy at Home. Enhance U.S. energy supplies through responsible development of domestic renewable energy, fossil fuels, advanced biofuels and nuclear energy.
• Promoting Energy Efficiency. Promote investments that secure the biggest bang for the buck in reducing energy bills in the transportation, electricity, industrial, building and agricultural sectors.
• Closing the Carbon Pollution Loophole. Develop an economy-wide emissions reduction program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and secure the greatest benefits at the lowest cost for families and businesses.
• Protecting American Consumers. Revenues generated by closing the carbon loophole will be returned to the people, especially vulnerable families, communities, and businesses.