We are only cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford. They made possible the age of automobile and airplane travel. Each American uses the energy equivalent of 60 barrels of oil per person each year. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day, and demand increases each year about 5 percent. Amid looming concern regarding the scarcity of oil resources President Carter delivers a message in stark terms, urging Americans to band together in order to eliminate the wasting of energy resources. Carter then launched into his energy policy plans, which included the implementation of mandatory conservation efforts for individuals and businesses and deep cuts in the nations dependence on foreign oil through import quotas. 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. Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. We can drift along for a few more years. 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. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next 5 years will be worse than the past 5 years. Now, I know that some of you may doubt that we face real energy shortages. What can we do? The 1973 gas lines are gone, and with this springtime weather, our homes are warm again. The first was about 200 years ago, when we changed away from wood--which had provided about 90 percent of all fuel--to coal, which was much more efficient. ." President Jimmy Carter Address to the Nation, April 18, 1977 With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge that our country will face during our lifetime. This writer voted for Carter in 1976. We could endanger our freedom as a sovereign nation to act in foreign affairs. They were more convenient and cheaper than coal, and the supply seemed to be almost without limit. Well, I understand how he felt, but I must tell you the truth. During the 1950's, people used twice as much oil as during the 1940's. Our Nation's economic and political independence is becoming increasingly vulnerable. With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan, and Sweden. I believe that this can be a positive challenge. This button displays the currently selected search type. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about 6 percent a year. Supplies will be uncertain. Six years ago, we paid $3.7 billion for imported oil. We can continue using scarce oil and natural gas to generate electricity and continue wasting two-thirds of their fuel value in the process. During the next few weeks, attention will be focused on the Congress, but the proving of our courage and commitment will continue, in different forms and places, in the months and the years, even generations ahead. So, I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America. They will endure. Our national energy plan is based on 10 fundamental principles. Both consumers and producers need policies they can count on so they can plan ahead. He also admitted that part of the problem was his failure to provide strong leadership on many issues, particularly energy and oil consumption. World consumption of oil is still going up. Jimmy Carter was born on October 1, 1924, in the farming community of Plains, Georgia. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, and every interest group. Second, as I've said before, it's designed to meet our important goals for energy conservation, to promote a shift to more plentiful and permanent energy supplies and encourage increased production of energy in the United States. I'm sure that each of you will find something you don't like about the specifics of our proposal. Every $5 billion increase in oil imports costs us 200,000 American jobs. The world has not prepared for the future. Download media. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends. Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change--to strict conservation and to the renewed use of coal and to permanent renewable energy sources like solar power. The 1973 gas lines are gone, and with this springtime weather, our homes are warm again. It will be money well spent. It has been an extraordinary 10 days, and I want to share with you what I've heard. Forty years ago tonight, President Jimmy Carter delivered his Address to the Nation on National Energy Policy, better known as the "Moral Equivalent of War" speech. When President Jimmy Carter addressed the nation on April 18, 1977, the U.S. was in a crisis. This is not a contest of strength between the President and the Congress, nor between the House and the Senate. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search . Above all, they will be fair. The American Presidency Project (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=7369). If we wait and do not act, then our factories will not be able to keep our people on the job with reduced supplies of fuel. There is something especially American in the kinds of changes that we have to make. Intense competition for oil will build up among nations and also among the different regions within our own country. ", "Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good. The fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. These are serious problems, and this has been a serious talk. One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: "We've got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. We have no choice about that. We ourselves are the same Americans who just 10 years ago put a man on the Moon. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense--I tell you it is an act of patriotism. The choices facing the Members of Congress are not easy. They are the ones that we must provide for now. Our farmers are the greatest agricultural exporters the world has ever known, but it now takes all the food and fiber that we export in 2 years just to pay for 1 year of imported oilabout $45 billion. Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem that is unprecedented in our history. Unless we act quickly, imports will continue to go up, and all the problems that I've just described will grow even worse. You may be right, but suspicions about the oil companies cannot change the fact that we are running out of petroleum. The sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce demand through conservation. The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are simply running out. And it will get worse every day until we act. National Energy Plan: Address to the Nation. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. But I'm confident that we can find the wisdom and the courage to make the right decisionseven when they are unpleasantso that we might, together, preserve the greatness of our Nation. I'm convinced that we can have enough energy to permit the continued growth of our economy, to expand production and jobs, and to protect the security of the United Statesif we act wisely. They are going up, whether we pass an energy program or not, as fuel becomes more scarce and more expensive to produce. It will demand that we make sacrifices and changes in every life. It is a crisis of confidence. This excessive importing of foreign oil is a tremendous and rapidly increasing drain on our national economy. We must look back into history to understand our energy problem. Thereafter, I was so dismayed by his presidency that I betrayed my natal Democratic Party and voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980. We will act together. Tonight I want to examine in a broad sense the state of our American Union--how we are building a new foundation for a peaceful and a prosperous world. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts. 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. On July 15, 1978, the Longest Walka 2,800-mile trek for Native American justice that had started with several hundred marchers in Californiaends in Washington, D.C., accompanied by thousands of supporters. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us. They want lower taxes on their profits. All rights reserved. What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. 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." That's why I've worked hard to put my campaign promises into law--and I have to admit, with just mixed success. During the next few weeks, the Congress will make a judgment on these vital questions. "Mr. President," he said, "I don't feel much like talking about energy and foreign policy. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail. At one point, he talked about the possibility of read more, The critically acclaimed 2002 biopic Walk The Line depicts the life and career of Johnny Cash from his initial rise to stardom in the 1950s to his resurgence following a drug-fueled decline in the 1960s. ", "Mr. President, we're in trouble. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. Conservation is the only way that we can buy a barrel of oil for about $2. Naval Academy, he served in the submarine corps just after World War II. The sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce demand through conservation. Former President Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.), was the 39 th president of the United States, serving from 1977-1981. If we wait and do not act, then our factories will not be able to keep our people on the job with reduced supplies of fuel. It feeds serious inflationary pressures in our own economy. It makes it harder for us to balance our Federal budget and to finance needed programs for our people. We must face an unpleasant fact about energy prices. Only by saving energy can we maintain our standard of living and keep our people at work. I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society--business and labor, teachers and preachers, Governors, mayors, and private citizens. By 1972, we were importing about 30 percent. Carter, a liberal president, was heading into a presidential campaign just as a tide of conservatism was rising, led by presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan, who went on to win the 1980 campaign. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual. But the sacrifices can be gradual, realistic, and they are necessary. Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980's the world will be demanding more oil than it can produce. But we still have another choice. They want greatly increased prices for "old" oil and gasenergy supplies which have already been discovered and which are being produced now. On January 14, 1981, President Jimmy Carter delivered a farewell address to the nation, thanking his staff and the American people for the opportunity to serve, warning about the continuing threat . This lack of moral and spiritual confidence, he concluded, was at the core of Americas inability to hoist itself out of its economic troubles. A President is elected for just 4 years, a Senator for 6, and our Representatives in Congress for only 2 years. Our imports have more than tripled in the last 10 years. We are only Cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford. No one will be asked to bear an unfair burden. 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.