Page 105 - 4923

Now, one other thing about electric cars — and you don’t need to talk to Chu about this — it turns out
electric cars run on electricity. (Laughter.) And so even if we reduce our oil dependency, and we’re producing
all these great electric cars, we’re going to have to have a plan to change the way we generate electricity in
America so that it’s cleaner and safer and healthier. We know that ushering in a clean energy economy has the
potential of creating untold numbers of new jobs and new businesses right here in the United States. But we’re
going to have to think about how do we produce electricity more efficiently.
Now, in addition to producing it, we actually also have to think about making sure we’re not wasting
energy. I don’t know how we’re doing on the Georgetown campus, Mr. President, but every institution and every
household has to start thinking about how are we reducing the amount of energy that we’re using and doing it in
more efficient ways.
Today, our homes and businesses consume 40 percent of the energy that we use, and it costs us billions
of dollars in energy bills. Manufacturers that require large amounts of energy to make their products, they’re
challenged by rising energy costs. And so you can’t separate the issue of oil dependence from the issue of how
we are producing generally — more energy generally. And that’s why we’ve proposed new programs to help
Americans upgrade their homes and businesses and plants with new, energy-efficient building materials —
new lighting, new windows, new heating and cooling systems – investments that will save consumers and
business owners tens of billions of dollars a year, and free up money for investment and hiring and creating new
jobs and hiring more workers and putting contractors to work as well.
The nice thing about energy efficiency is we already have the technology. We don’t have to create
something new. We just have to help businesses and homeowners put in place the installation, the energy-
efficient windows, the energy-efficient lighting. They’ll get their money back. You will save money on your
electricity bill that pays for those improvements that you made, but a lot of people may not have the money up
front, and so we’ve got to give them some incentives to do that. And just like the fuels we use in our cars, we’re
going to have to find cleaner renewable sources of electricity. Today, about two-fifths of our electricity comes
from clean energy sources. But we can do better than that. I think that with the right incentives in place, we can
double our use of clean energy. And that’s why, in my State of the Union address back in January, I called for a
new Clean Energy Standard for America: By 2035, 80 percent of our electricity needs to come from a wide
range of clean energy sources — renewables like wind and solar, efficient natural gas. And, yes, we’re going to
have to examine how do we make clean coal and nuclear power work.
Now, in light of the ongoing events in Japan, I want to just take a minute to talk about nuclear power.
Right now, America gets about one-fifth of our electricity from nuclear energy. And it’s important to recognize
that nuclear energy doesn’t emit carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So those of us who are concerned about
climate change, we’ve got to recognize that nuclear power, if it’s safe, can make a significant contribution to the
climate change question. And I’m determined to ensure that it’s safe. So in light of what’s happened in Japan,
I’ve requested a comprehensive safety review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make sure that all of
our existing nuclear energy facilities are safe. And we’re going incorporate those conclusions and lessons from
Japan in design and the building of the next generation of plants. But we can’t simply take it off the table.
My administration is leading global discussions towards a new international framework in which all
countries who are operating nuclear plants are making sure that they’re not spreading dangerous nuclear
materials and technology. But more broadly, a clean energy standard can expand the scope of clean energy
investments because what it does is it gives cutting-edge companies the certainty that they need to invest.
Essentially what it does is it says to companies, you know what, you will have a customer if you’re producing
clean energy. Utilities, they need to buy a certain amount of clean energy in their overall portfolio, and that
means that innovators are willing to make those big capital investments. And we’ve got to start now because —
think about this — in the 1980s, America was home to more than 80 percent of the world’s wind capacity, 90
percent of the world’s solar capacity. We were the leaders in wind. We were the leaders in solar. We owned the
104