Jimmy Carter on Energy: 1977

An historical document:

Jimmy Carter: Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes.... We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren.... By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.

Two days from now, I will present my energy proposals to the Congress. Its members will be my partners and they have already given me a great deal of valuable advice. Many of these proposals will be unpopular. Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices.... Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern. This difficult effort will be the "moral equivalent of war" -- except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not destroy.

I know that some of you may doubt that we face real energy shortages. The 1973 gasoline lines are gone, and our homes are warm again. But our energy problem is worse tonight than it was in 1973.... [D]omestic production has been dropping steadily at about six percent a year. Imports have doubled in the last five years. Our nation's independence of economic and political action is becoming increasingly constrained....

Twice in the last several hundred years there has been a transition in the way people use energy. The first was about 200 years ago, away from wood -- which had provided about 90 percent of all fuel -- to coal, which was more efficient. This change became the basis of the Industrial Revolution. The second change took place in this century, with the growing use of oil and natural gas.... [W]e must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power....

[W]e do have a choice about how we will spend the next few years.... We can drift along.... Our cars would continue to be too large and inefficient. Three-quarters of them would continue to carry only one person -- the driver -- while our public transportation system continues to decline. We can delay insulating our houses, and they will continue to lose about 50 percent of their heat in waste. We can continue using scarce oil and natural to generate electricity, and continue wasting two-thirds of their fuel value in the process....

But we still have another choice. We can begin to prepare right now. We can decide to act while there is time.... [W]e 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.... [H]ealthy economic growth must continue... we must protect the environment... we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes... we must be fair. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, every interest group.... [T]he cornerstone of our policy is to reduce the demand through conservation. Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts. Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy.... [P]rices should generally reflect the true replacement costs of energy. We are only cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford.... [G]overnment policies must be predictable and certain.... [W]e must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are more plentiful.... [W]e must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century....

I cant tell you that these measures will be easy, nor will they be popular. But I think most of you realize that a policy which does not ask for changes or sacrifices would not be an effective policy.... Whether this plan truly makes a difference will be decided not here in Washington, but in every town and every factory, in every home an don every highway and every farm.... There is something especially American in the kinds of changes we have to make. We have been proud through our history of being efficient people. We have been proud of our leadership in the world.... And we have been proud of our vision of the future. We have always wanted to give our children and grandchildren a world richer in possibilities than we've had....

I am sure each of you will find something you don't like about the specifics of our proposal.... We can be sure that all the special interest groups in the country will attack the part of this plan that affects them directly. They will say that sacrifice is fine, as long as other people do it, but that their sacrifice is unreasonable, or unfair, or harmful to the country....

Other generation of Americans have faced and mastered great challenges. I have faith that meeting this challenge will make our own lives even richer. If you will join me so that we can work together with patriotism and courage, we will again prove that our great nation can lead the world into an age of peace, independence and freedom.

Jimmy Carter, "The President's Proposed Energy Policy." 18 April 1977. Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. XXXXIII, No. 14, May 1, 1977, pp. 418-420.

Comments

[steve]

To symbolize the task ahead, Carter installed a solar system in the White House. And to symbolize his approach to energy problem, Reagan immediately ripped it out.

[steve]

To symbolize the task ahead, Carter installed a solar system in the White House. And to symbolize his approach to energy problem, Reagan immediately ripped it out.

[steve]

To symbolize the task ahead, Carter installed a solar system in the White House. And to symbolize his approach to energy problem, Reagan immediately ripped it out.

[kharris]

Carter understood what lay ahead. Efforts to deal with it ran contrary to the interests of too many powerful groups, and he was unable to win past their efforts to derail a shift toward a radical change in energy use.

One error in substance, though an understandable one, was to focus on energy supply as fragile. In the intervening years, supply problems have been the exception, rather than the rule. The eagerness to ridicule peak-oil analysis, rather than simply disagree with it, shows the eagerness to deny overall supply risks. The problem is broader than just whether their is sufficient supply. It extends to geopolitics, the balance of payments, global climate change, air and water quality, farming practices - the list is long. For every item on the list, we'd have been better of is Carter had prevailed against oil interests. As in much else, Carter's failure was not of understanding or vision or policy, but rather of politics and salesmanship.

It's sad that the one politician whose really wanted to lead us in the right direction is now vilified, while those who took us in the easy direction are lauded as great leaders.

[Joshua Whalen]

Yes, I remember.

[Joshua Whalen]

yes, I remember.

[Joshua Whalen]

yes, I remember.

[kharris]

Our environmental, energy and current account circumstances have deteriorated since 1977. Has the effort to denigrate conservation deteriorated? No.

www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1829354,00.html

[bakho]

What were the effects of Carter policies? From 1978 to 1983, US demand for oil dropped by over 20%. By 1983, OPEC was cutting back oil production in an attempt to maintain prices. By 1985, OPEC had lost its power to control oil price. It would be 2000 before US oil demand returned to 1978 levels.

The problem for Big Oil was losing Big money. Starting in 1981 at a peak of 324 oil refineries, Big Oil closed the oldest and most inefficient refineries to reach a total of 149 US refineries in 2007. Carter's energy policy of conservation, efficiency and oil alternatives was successful by almost every standard except oil company profits Record profits did not return until the latest oil shock.

From 1979 to 1980, the Consumer Price Index increased by 13.5%.
From 1982 to 1983, the CPI increased by only 3.2 %.
The oil shock was over and disappeared until recent demand has created the current oil shock.

[Kelly]

While I agree we had a serious leadership deficit, I don't agree that was the main problem.
What could have been added to the end of that speech;

"Or alternatively we can just press the pedal to the metal and drive off into the happy sunset oblivious to everything just said."

The American people joyfully picked that one.

[Jim V]

I could never understand why Carter got such criticism. At worst, it seemed to me, he could be accused of having good plans but not being able to get them implemented. In my political time (starting with Nixon vs. Humphrey in 1968) he seemed like the closest thing to an honest politician to me. Sure, he made some mistakes as everyone does, but it wasn't for lack of working hard to find and do the right thing.

[Tazistan Jen]

Jim V - when I watched the video, I realized part of why Carter got such criticism. He was a really crappy speaker. Look how he starts his speech: "Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you" Yuck. It makes *me* want to wriggle away, and I agree with him! His delivery is uninspiring as well - flat, repetitive, lots of ums and stuttering.

If I am right, there is some good news here. Obama is an excellent speaker, and would never tell us he wanted to have an "unpleasant talk" with us. Therefore, he should be much better at persuading us to do the things we need to do.

[vtcodger]

***Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people*** The character of the American people was in fact tested. Our test answer. Fire Carter and hire a happy talking nitwit. Our character was tested and we failed the test ... dismally.

[Doctor Jay]

I agree with vtcodger. There was nothing wrong at all with Carter's diagnosis, and policy prescriptions. However, he was a very bad salesman of those ideas. As a small town guy, he was a "lead by example" sort of guy, soft-spoken, walking the walk. These are good things, but they don't sell well in the national media stage.

There is a much better approach now current. One where we paint a vision of a future that is different, but better for everyone, or mostly everyone. There will be new jobs created that will more than replace the old ones. There will be new technologies to bring to market, and plenty of business to engage in, as well as cleaner air, cleaner water, not to mention an Arctic icepack and glaciers still plentiful.

[dewar]

His 1979 so-called "malaise" speech is also quite brilliant and prescient.

But do not canonize him yet: remember the Carter Doctrine?

The saddest part of all this is how much we have known for over thirty years and done next-to-nothing.

[Roger Albin]

Next stop - Walter Mondale's speech on what to do about large Federal deficits.