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clean energy economy in the ‘80s. Guess what. Today, China has the most wind capacity. Germany has the most
solar capacity. Both invest more in clean energy than we do, even though we are a larger economy and a
substantially larger user of energy. We’ve fallen behind on what is going to be the key to our future. Other
countries are now exporting technology we pioneered and they’re going after the jobs that come with it because
they know that the countries that lead the 21st century clean energy economy will be the countries that lead the
21st century global economy. I want America to be that nation. I want America to win the future. (Applause.) So
a clean energy standard will help drive private investment in innovation. But I want to make this point:
Government funding will still be critical. Over the past two years, the historic investments my administration has
made in clean and renewable energy research and technology have helped private sector companies grow and
hire hundreds of thousands of new workers.
I’ve visited gleaming new solar arrays that are among the largest in the world. I’ve tested an electric
vehicle fresh off the assembly line. I mean, I didn’t really test it — I was able to drive like five feet before
Secret Service said to stop. (Laughter.) I’ve toured factories that used to be shuttered, where they’re now
building advanced wind blades that are as long as 747s, and they’re building the towers that support them. And
I’ve seen the scientists that are searching for the next big breakthrough in energy. None of this would have
happened without government support. I understand we’ve got a tight fiscal situation, so it’s fair to ask how do
we pay for government’s investment in energy. And as we debate our national priorities and our budget in
Congress, we’re going to have to make some tough choices. We’re going to have to cut what we don’t need to
invest in what we do need. Unfortunately, some folks want to cut critical investments in clean energy. They want
to cut our research and development into new technologies. They’re shortchanging the resources necessary
even to promptly issue new permits for offshore drilling. These cuts would eliminate thousands of private sector
jobs; it would terminate scientists and engineers; it would end fellowships for researchers, some who may be
here at Georgetown, graduate students and other talent that we desperately need to get into this area in the 21st
century. That doesn’t make sense. We’re already paying a price for our inaction. Every time we fill up at the
pump, every time we lose a job or a business to countries that are investing more than we do in clean energy,
when it comes to our air, our water, and the climate change that threatens the planet that you will inherit – we’re
already paying a price. These are costs that we are already bearing. And if we do nothing, the price will only go
up. So at moments like these, sacrificing these investments in research and development, in supporting clean
energy technologies, that would weaken our energy economy and make us more dependent on oil. That’s not a
game plan to win the future. That’s a vision to keep us mired in the past. I will not accept that outcome for the
United States of America. We are not going to do that. (Applause.)
Let me close by speaking directly to the students here — the next generation who are going to be writing
the next great chapter in the American story. The issue of energy independence is one that America has been
talking about since before your parents were your age, since before you were born. And you also happen to go to
a school [in a town] that for a long time has suffered from a chronic unwillingness to come together and make
tough choices. And so I forgive you for thinking that maybe there isn’t much we can do to rise to this challenge.
Maybe some of you are feeling kind of cynical or skeptical about whether we’re actually going to solve this
problem. But everything I have seen and experienced with your generation convinces me otherwise. I think that
precisely because you are coming of age at a time of such rapid and sometimes unsettling change, born into a
world with fewer walls, educated in an era of constant information, tempered by war and economic turmoil —
because that’s the world in which you’re coming of age, I think you believe as deeply as any of our previous
generations that America can change and it can change for the better. We need that. We need you to dream big.
We need you to summon that same spirit of unbridled optimism and that bold willingness to tackle tough
challenges and see those challenges through that led previous generations to rise to greatness – to save a
democracy, to touch the moon, to connect the world with our own science and our own imagination. That’s what
America is capable of. That’s what you have to push America to do, and it will be you that pushes it. That
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