[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 21 (Monday, May 28, 2001)]
[Pages 778-779]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

May 19, 2001

    Good morning. This week I outlined a new energy strategy for our 
Nation--more than 100 specific recommendations to promote energy 
conservation, enlarge and diversify our energy supply, and modernize the 
networks that link energy producers to energy consumers.
    We need to act to protect family budgets. Since 1998, the energy 
bill of the average family has skyrocketed by 25 percent. That's a 
hardship for every family. We need to act to prevent more and more 
widespread blackouts. Blackouts disrupt businesses and put public health 
and safety at risk. We need to act to reduce our reliance on foreign 
crude oil. And if we fail to act, our environment will suffer, as 
Government officials struggle to prevent blackouts in the only way 
possible, by calling on more polluting emergency

[[Page 779]]

backup generators and by running less efficient old powerplants too long 
and too hard. So we will act to protect our economy and to safeguard our 
environment.
    Too often Americans are asked to take sides between energy 
production and environmental protection. The truth is, energy production 
and environmental protection are not competing priorities. Both can be 
achieved with new technology and a new vision.
    Most of the new electric powerplants we build over the next 20 years 
will be fueled by clean and safe natural gas. Many of the others will be 
powered by wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear, and other energy sources 
that emit no pollution at all. New cars emit 95 percent less pollution 
than cars built 30 years ago. And my energy plan fosters the development 
of a new generation of cars that is even cleaner still.
    Wise regulation and American innovation will make this country the 
world's leader in energy efficiency and conservation in the 21st 
century. We will use less and less additional energy to fuel more and 
more economic growth. Yet, even as we grow more efficient, we will 
always require some additional energy to power our expanding economy.
    Advanced new technologies allow entrepreneurs to find oil and to 
extract it in ways that leave nature undisturbed. Where oil is found 
underneath sensitive landscapes, rigs can now stand miles away from the 
oilfield and tap the reservoir at an angle. In Arctic sites, like ANWR, 
we can build roads on ice that literally melt away when summer comes and 
the drilling stops to protect wildlife.
    I was just in Pennsylvania and paid a visit to the Susquehanna 
River. After years of being endangered, American shad have been restored 
to this great waterway, and the fish are thriving alongside the dam that 
is generating emission-free hydroelectric power to meet the needs of 
Pennsylvania's people.
    It's time to leave behind rancorous old arguments and build a 
positive new consensus. With new technology, sound regulation, and plain 
good sense, we can expand our energy production while protecting the 
environment. And that is exactly what my energy approach is designed to 
do.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 5:20 p.m. on May 18 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on May 19. In his 
address, the President referred to ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife 
Refuge. The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on May 18 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. 
The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language 
transcript of the address.