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industries and innovations — we will leave your generation and future generations with a country that is safer,
that is healthier, and that’s more prosperous.
So today, my administration is releasing a Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future that outlines a
comprehensive national energy policy, one that we’ve been pursuing since the day I took office. And cutting our
oil dependence by a third is part of that plan. Here at Georgetown, I’d like to talk in broad strokes about how we
can achieve these goals. Now, meeting the goal of cutting our oil dependence depends largely on two things:
first, finding and producing more oil at home; second, reducing our overall dependence on oil with cleaner
alternative fuels and greater efficiency. This begins by continuing to increase America’s oil supply. Even for
those of you who are interested in seeing a reduction in our dependence on fossil fuels — and I know how
passionate young people are about issues like climate change — the fact of the matter is, is that for quite some
time, America is going to be still dependent on oil in making its economy work.
Now, last year, American oil production reached its highest level since 2003. And for the first time in
more than a decade, oil we imported accounted for less than half of the liquid fuel we consumed. So that was a
good trend. To keep reducing that reliance on imports, my administration is encouraging offshore oil
exploration and production — as long as it’s safe and responsible. I don’t think anybody here has forgotten
what happened last year, where we had to deal with the largest oil spill in [our] history. I know some of the
fishermen down in the Gulf Coast haven’t forgotten it. And what we learned from that disaster helped us put in
place smarter standards of safety and responsibility. For example, if you’re going to drill in deepwater, you’ve
got to prove before you start drilling that you can actually contain an underwater spill. That’s just common
sense. And lately, we’ve been hearing folks saying, well, the Obama administration, they put restrictions on how
oil companies operate offshore. Well, yes, because we just spent all that time, energy and money trying to clean
up a big mess. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have amnesia. I remember these things. (Laughter.) And
I think it was important for us to make sure that we prevent something like that from happening again.
(Applause.)
Now, today, we’re working to expedite new drilling permits for companies that meet these higher
standards. Since they were put in, we’ve approved 39 new shallow-water permits; we’ve acres of leases
approved seven deepwater permits in recent weeks. When it comes to drilling offshore, my administration
approved more than two permits last year for every new well that the industry started to drill. So any claim that
my administration is responsible for gas prices because we’ve “shut down” oil production, any claim like that is
simply untrue. It might make for a useful sound bite, but it doesn’t track with reality. What is true is we’ve said
if you’re going to drill offshore you’ve got to have a plan to make sure that we don’t have the kind of catastrophe
that we had last year. And I don’t think that there’s anybody who should dispute that that’s the right strategy to
pursue. Moreover, we’re actually pushing the oil industry to take advantage of the opportunities that they’ve
already got. Right now the industry holds tens of millions of acres of leases where they’re not producing a single
drop. They’re just sitting on supplies of American energy that are ready to be tapped. That’s why part of our plan
is to provide new and better incentives that promote rapid, responsible development of these resources.
We’re also exploring and assessing new frontiers for oil and gas development from Alaska to the Mid-
and South Atlantic states, because producing more oil in America can help lower oil prices, can help create jobs,
and can enhance our energy security, but we’ve got to do it in the right way. Now, even if we increase domestic
oil production, that is not going to be the long-term solution to our energy challenge. I give out this statistic all
the time, and forgive me for repeating it again: America holds about 2 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves.
What that means is, is that even if we drilled every drop of oil out of every single one of the reserves that we
possess — offshore and onshore — it still wouldn’t be enough to meet our long-term needs. We consume about
25 percent of the world’s oil. We only have 2 percent of the reserves. Even if we doubled U.S. oil production,
we’re still really short. So the only way for America’s energy supply to be truly secure is by permanently
reducing our dependence on oil. We’re going to have to find ways to boost our efficiency so we use less oil.
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