    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [May 4, 1998]
    [Pages 679-682]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing
    in San Fernando, California
    May 4, 1998

        Thank you very much. I think Christy
    did a terrific job. And the rest of her family is out here; we're glad
    you're here. And let me say to all of you how very glad I am to be here.
    I want to thank Congressman Sherman. I know
    that Congressman Berman wanted to be here
    today, but a family emergency prevented him from coming. His daughter
    Lindsey is here; I thank her for coming.
    Thank you, Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis, for
    being here.
        We have a number of people who have been involved in this endeavor:
    William Apgar, who is our Assistant
    Secretary-designate at HUD; Deane Evans, the
    staff director for PATH. Thank you, Bob Vila. Thank
    you, Jeff Lee and Jay Stark, the president and director of development for the Lee
    Group. I thank the Braemar Urban Ventures, who are also a part of this
    project.
        I say a special word of thanks to Don Martin,
    the president of the National Association of Home Builders--came a good
    long way to be with us today, and that shows the kind of commitment we
    have out of this national organization. I thank him very much for his
    remarks and his presence.
        I see a lot of people in the audience, I hesitate to acknowledge
    some for fear of missing others, but I see our L.A. County
    Supervisor, Zev Yaroslavsky, and City
    Councilman Richard Alarcon, former
    Assemblyman Richard Katz, Assemblyman Bob
    Hertzberg. I thank them for coming.
        And I have to make special notice of one person who is here. I don't
    know a more ardent environmentalist than Ed Begley, Jr. He's the first person I ever met who owned an electric
    car. Thank you for coming.
        Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very important day. I know that all
    of us are glad that our country is enjoying good economic times, that we
    have 15 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment in 28 years, the
    lowest inflation rate in 30 years, the lowest crime rate in 24 years,
    the highest consumer confidence in 30 years. We also have another
    accomplishment as a country that's particularly relevant today: We have
    the highest homeownership ever recorded in the history of the United
    States.
        And all of that is very good. The housing market has never been
    stronger. It appears that between now and 2010, we'll have 15 million
    more new homes built in America. It's a great opportunity for the
    American people. But like all the changes going on today, as I have
    repeatedly said, this is not a time for us to be smug or complacent.
    This is a time for us to ask, how can we take advantage of the good
    times we have and the changes that are going on to meet the long-term
    challenges of America?
        And we have a number of long-term challenges. One is to reform
    Social Security and Medicare for the 21st century so the baby boomers
    don't bankrupt the rest of the country. I can say that because I am one.
    [Laughter] Another is to bring the spark of free enterprise to the
    inner-city neighborhoods that haven't yet felt it, to make sure
    everybody has a chance to be a part of the economic future of America.
    Another is to make the most of our rich racial and ethnic diversity so
    that we are even stronger than we have ever been. Another is to build

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    a world-class system of elementary and secondary education to go along
    with our system of higher education.
        But all of that requires us to be able to live in our global home on
    free and fair and decent terms with our neighbors around the world. And
    the biggest challenge to that today, in my opinion, is the challenge of
    climate change and global warming.
        There is virtually unanimous--not complete but virtually unanimous--
    opinion among scientists that the globe is warming at an unacceptably
    rapid rate. We know, for example, that the last decade is the warmest
    decade in 600 years. It literally--3 years in the 1990's are the warmest
    years since the year 1400. You know in California from the unusual
    severity of this El Nino what these kind of disruptive weather events
    can be like. And we know that if the climate, in fact, continues to heat
    up through the excessive emission of greenhouse gases into the
    atmosphere, we will have more extreme, dramatic weather events, such as
    those you've experienced so frequently in California in the last few
    years, on a more regular basis throughout the United States and, indeed,
    throughout the world.
        We also know what to do about it. We know that we can substantially
    reduce greenhouse gas emissions and we know if we do so, we can--in the
    right way--we can do it and continue to grow the economy at a perfectly
    acceptable rate. Now, it's already been said by previous speakers that
    emissions from homes in America account for about 20 percent of our
    total greenhouse gas emission. Let me try to put that into some
    perspective. Basically a third of the greenhouse gas emissions come from
    transportation, primarily from cars and trucks. About a third comes from
    factories and powerplants. And about a third comes from buildings--homes
    and office buildings, commercial structures. In that third, about two-
    thirds of that comes from homes.
        So if we know that we can do things with available technology--and
    you just saw it all demonstrated here--that will actually be profitable
    to homeowners, won't hurt homebuilders, and will help to save the
    planet, by definition, it will put more money into consumers' pockets;
    and by saving the environment, we will generate higher, not lower,
    economic growth. It will improve the productivity of homebuilding and,
    in a very profound way, the productivity of living in homes.
        Now, that's what this PATH project is all about. It will be the most
    ambitious effort ever to help private homebuilders and homeowners make
    cost-effective, energy-saving decisions that will pay big dividends
    throughout the 21st century.
        Now, let me say that we have a specific goal here, and I don't think
    it's an unrealistic one based on what you have already heard and the
    specific examples you saw at the beginning of this event. Over the next
    decade, the goal of PATH is to cut energy use by 50 percent in new homes
    and 30 percent in 15 million existing homes. Keep in mind, there are 100
    million homeowners in America, as our homebuilder leader said. That's an
    achievable goal. If we achieve that goal, it means by the year 2010
    we'll save consumers $11 billion a year in energy costs, reduce annual
    carbon emissions--listen to this--by 24 million tons, equivalent to the
    amount produced each year by 20 million cars. For new homes and old
    ones, therefore, PATH will lead us toward a cost-effective solution to
    help preserve our real home, the planet Earth.
        Now, several weeks ago right here, PATH experts reached out to the
    Lee Group to help identify inexpensive ways of building energy-saving
    features into all the new homes. The results have been dramatic. The new
    technologies suggested by PATH experts--listen to this--here will save
    homeowners in this very moderate climate more than $230 a year on their
    energy bill, $7,000 during the life of the mortgage, without adding a
    dime to the price of the home. In regions where there are greater
    extremes of hot and cold, the savings will be much, much larger.
        The power of this partnership is growing every day. Many Federal
    agencies are working with builders and suppliers to develop even better
    technologies. They're working with State and local officials to
    streamline regulations, and that's very important. That's why I'm glad
    to see so many State and local officials here today. The Los Angeles
    City Council just passed a resolution to help speed PATH projects. When
    homeowners agree to buy ultra-efficient appliances, the Department of
    Water and Power will help to pay any extra cost. Fannie Mae will make it
    possible for more homeowners to qualify for home mortgages, giving them
    credit for the energy savings they will collect in terms of the

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    eligibility for their mortgage. And we ought to congratulate MetroLink,
    too, for making it so easy for community members to leave their cars at
    home.
        Now, this collaborative approach to energy savings is the same one
    we're also trying to take with the commercial sector. Remember,
    residential and commercial together are about a third of our greenhouse
    gas emissions. We're working with the owners and the managers of the
    Empire State Building and the World Trade Center in New York, the Sears
    Tower in Chicago, and many other buildings to cut their energy use by up
    to 30 percent.
        It's the approach we're taking in the car industry. Transportation
    is a third of the problem. We've already worked with Ford, GM, and
    Chrysler for 5 years now to help them produce prototypes that will get
    more than twice the mileage of today's cars, with no sacrifice in
    comfort, safety, or performance. And we are on the verge of having
    energy engine technologies in transportation that will reduce greenhouse
    gas emissions by 75 to 80 percent.
        This is the approach that I'm trying to take to this problem in a
    comprehensive fashion. It's why I have asked the Congress to make a
    commitment that is unprecedented but a good investment of $6.3 billion
    over the next few years for research and for tax incentives to mobilize
    these new technologies. Some of the incentives I've proposed, such as
    tax credits for energy-efficient homes or the solar panels you see there
    that are so dramatically different from the huge contraptions that used
    to be necessary to put on roofs, are designed specifically to promote
    the goals of PATH, the ones I've just announced to you.
        Today I hope again I can ask all of you to ask the Members of
    Congress who are here with Brad Sherman and
    don't agree with Howard Berman and Brad to
    actually vote for this. It seems to me that every Republican and every
    Democrat Member of Congress would be for a system of tax credits that
    actually created a win-win situation. It would generate more economic
    activity and less pollution. It will save money for consumers and cut
    down on greenhouse gas emissions by saving natural resources.
        Now let me say again, there are still people in Washington who think
    this is some great plot to wreck the economy. If I'm trying to wreck the
    economy, I've done a poor job of it. [Laughter] Every time in the last
    28 years since we started with the Clean Air Act in 1970, every time we
    have faced an environmental challenge, people have said, ``Oh, if they
    do this, they're going to hurt the economy.'' I have heard it and heard
    it and heard it--whether it was acid rain, pesticides, polluted rivers,
    the ozone hole--everybody said it was terrible.
        Well, guess what? The ozone hole is thickening now. The layer is
    thickening again. We got rid of CFC's, and we did it in a way that
    actually has improved the economy. Every single environmental challenge
    we have met as a country in the last three decades has actually served
    to strengthen the economy by creating a demand for new ideas, new
    technologies, and new businesses.
        So we have generated more jobs, not fewer jobs, by doing the
    responsible thing for our environment. And that's what will happen
    again. These new technologies in our homes, in our cars, our appliances,
    new sources of energy like solar power and fuel cells, working with
    other nations of the world in new partnerships--all these things are
    going to give us a much more well-balanced economy. On the other hand,
    if we don't do it, I will say again, if you liked El Nino for the last
    several months, you will love the 21st century if we keep on the path
    we're on.
        I think the answer is clear. And when someone can stand up here and
    make the kind of very personal testimonial about what it does to your
    living circumstances, like Christy did,
    and then say it enables her husband and her son and herself--it enables
    them to be good citizens by making a statement about what kind of
    environmental values they have--that's the story we want every American
    to be able to tell.
        So I ask you to support the PATH initiative. I ask you to go home
    and examine whether you can do something in your own home to be a part
    of this. I ask you to ask the Members of Congress, without regard to
    party, to make this an American crusade. Because if you think about the
    big, long-term challenges America faces, this is clearly one, and we
    have it within our grasp to meet the challenge in a way that will give
    these little babies that are in this audience a much better life in the
    new century.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:57 a.m. at a PATH development site. In
    his remarks, he referred to Christy Steindorf, owner of an energy-

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    efficient home who introduced the President; Bob Vila, host of the
    television program ``The Renovation Guide''; Jeffrey Lee, president, and
    Jay Stark, director of development, Lee Group; and actor Ed Begley, Jr.