[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 26 (Monday, July 2, 2001)]
[Pages 985-988]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Department of Energy Employees

June 28, 2001

    Thank you very much. Okay. Conserve your energy. [Laughter] That's 
the message I'm sending to Congress today, in a comprehensive energy 
strategy. On the one hand, it says we must be wiser about how we develop 
and increase supply, and on the other hand, it says we must be wiser 
about how we conserve energy.
    Our Nation must have a strategy, a broad, comprehensive energy 
strategy that calls upon the best of the Nation's entrepreneurs to help 
us develop the technologies necessary to make wise choices in the 
marketplace, as well as calls upon our Nation's innovative technologies 
to help us find new sources of energy. And the plan I submitted to 
Congress today does just that.
    Mr. Secretary, I appreciate your leadership. He's a man of high 
energy and good wisdom. And I picked the right man to lead the Energy 
Department for the country. I want to thank all the hard-working folks 
here at the Department of Energy and those around the country who are 
dedicating your lives to making America a better place.
    I want to thank the United States Congressman who came. George, 
thank you very much for being here. He's from the great State of 
California. As you know, California has an energy issue, and the people 
of our country and the people of California must understand that the 
Federal Government has stood side by side with the people of California, 
working to alleviate the situation there.
    We've expedited the ability for California to build new powerplants. 
We've reduced the regulatory burdens and hurdles to encourage the 
increase of supply into a State in which no powerplant had been built 
for over a decade. And yesterday I was pleased to see--and the Governor 
inaugurated a new powerplant in Chino, California--the beginnings of 
what is a rational energy policy that will help the good people of 
California get out from underneath 10 years of neglect.
    Secondly, the Federal Government made a strong commitment, led by 
Spence

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Abraham and led by Don Rumsfeld, to reduce the amount of usage of energy 
in the State of California. And I'm pleased to report the U.S. Navy, for 
example, has reported it has reduced power during peak hours by 11 
percent over last year. And I want to thank you all for being good 
stewards of the Nation's scarce resources.
    I'm also pleased to recognize the members of the Canadian-Mexican-
U.S. task force to develop energy supply in our own hemisphere. Natural 
gas needs to move in our hemisphere. It needs to move easily across our 
borders to find markets, to be able to ease the pressures of reduced 
supply all around the country.
    One of the interesting things about California is the new 
powerplants that are now being constructed will be powered by natural 
gas. Therefore, we need more natural gas supply to power the 
powerplants. And I want to thank our Mexican and Canadian friends for 
working with us to jointly develop--[applause].
    And finally, I want to thank the entrepreneurs who have come to 
brief Spence and myself on the latest technologies that are developing. 
You know, one of the great things about our country is that if we 
provide the right incentive and the right partnerships, there are no 
limits to what our entrepreneurs can develop; there's no limits to the 
technology that we can bring to marketplace.
    And we saw a lot of that today. We saw new automobiles that will be 
more fuel efficient, while making sure that consumer demand for comfort 
is met. We saw new technologies being developed out of Silicon Valley 
and Massachusetts and other States, that will make consumer products 
more energy efficient. And I want to thank the entrepreneurs who are 
here and remind you that my government is committed to this proposition. 
Our job is to create an environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit 
flourishes all across America. That not only means reasonable, sound tax 
policy; that means putting the Federal Government squarely on the side 
of innovation.
    And so, today I'm pleased to announce $85.7 million in Federal 
grants to encourage academia and the private sector to join with 
contributions from the private sector to accelerate the development of 
fuel cells, advanced engines, hydrotechnology, and efficient appliances 
for American consumers.
    And today, as well, I want to talk about what's called vampires and 
announce to the Nation the new vampire slayer, and that's the Secretary 
of Energy, Spence Abraham. [Laughter] Because of our desire for instant 
convenience, many of the appliances in our homes carry unnecessarily 
high energy costs. Because we're used to a computer coming on instantly 
or a TV snapping on as a result of a flick of a remote switch, common-
day appliances eat enormous amounts of energy, and yet we're developing 
the technologies necessary to have both convenience and energy savings.
    Today we witnessed the technology necessary, for example, to take a 
device that powers cell phones and reduce the amount of electricity by a 
significant amount of money. You see, when the battery is plugged into 
the wall, even though the phone is not charging, it still eats energy. 
And while that may not be much of a savings on an individual unit basis, 
when you multiply the amount of chargers plugged into people's walls all 
across America, one can begin to realize significant energy savings all 
across the country.
    As a matter of fact, it said that these vampires, the vampire 
devices use about 4 percent of the electricity in the average home. And 
to put this on a national scale, if we multiplied the vampire devices' 
energy consumption across the country, we're talking about 52 billion 
kilowatt hours of power a year, or the equivalent of 26 average-size 
powerplants.
    And so the fundamental question is, are we able to mate the 
technologies with the consumer devices? And the answer is, we must. We 
must, if we are to have an energy strategy of which one of the key 
components is conservation. And so today, not only am I announcing that 
Spence is the vampire slayer--and by that, I mean that the Federal 
Government will work hard to purchase and promote those energy savers 
that only use 1 watt of energy as opposed to the average 4 or 7 watts of 
energy.
    And so, what can we do? What can we do to set the clear example? 
Well, first, I'm

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going to sign an Executive order directing all Federal agencies to 
purchase appliances that meet the 1-watt standard, wherever cost 
effective. I say wherever cost effective because I don't want the 
manufacturers of the new products to feel that they've got an easy 
market when it comes to the Federal Government. We will purchase the new 
technologies, but we will make sure we do so without getting gouged. 
We'll be reasonable purchasers. But the Federal Government must set the 
example.
    We must have--my dream is to have desktop computers all across our 
Government with the latest savings devices that we saw today on display. 
Saving devices that say, when the computer is off or on standby, the 
energy supply being used is reduced by sevenfold. That's necessary. It 
is the right step for our Federal Government to set the example. It is 
the right step for our Federal Government--on the one hand, if we lay 
out an energy strategy, we must act upon the strategy.
    And so, Mr. Secretary, when I sign that Executive order, I know the 
kind of person you are. You will join with me in judging how effective 
our purchasers have become to whether or not this is simply a piece of 
paper or whether or not it becomes an action plan for smart Government 
policy. And both of us are joined together to make sure it's an action 
plan.
    Secondly, we hope industry joins with Government in making these 
wise decisions. That's happening. The bottom line is essential for many 
corporations. The bottom line can be drastically affected in a positive 
way by smart energy practices, and it's happening. Imagine the economies 
of purchase that will take place when the Federal Government and 
industry starts making wise decisions about the technologies to save 
energy, so that it becomes much more feasible for the American consumer 
in short order.
    And finally, we must incorporate the new 1-watt standard in the 
qualifications to earn the ENERGY STAR as awarded by the Department of 
Energy and the EPA. The ENERGY STAR is an important marketing tool, 
because it says to energy-conscious consumers: This product makes sense; 
this product incorporates the latest technology to conserve energy; this 
product is the most efficient use of technology that we can promote.
    And we're very aggressive about promoting ENERGY STAR. I'm a strong 
supporter of the program, because there are millions of Americans who 
want to make the right choices, who want to help this Nation become less 
dependent on foreign sources of crude oil, who want this Nation to be a 
nation that has a reliable energy source, and who want to do their part 
when it comes to purchasing in the marketplace. And ENERGY STAR is a 
great way for the Federal Government to enter into a partnership with 
consumer product producers that says: This is the latest; this is the 
best. And so the Secretary of Energy and the Director of--Administrator 
of the EPA and my office will work to promote ENERGY STAR all across the 
country.
    Ours is the first administration that has laid out a broad strategy, 
a comprehensive strategy, a strategy that goes beyond the stale debates 
of whether or not we ought to drill for natural gas in Alaska, or not. 
This strategy is much broader than that. And while I strongly believe we 
ought to explore for natural gas and hydrocarbons without destroying our 
environment--and I believe we can do so in Alaska--it's important for 
the American people to understand that we're talking way beyond just one 
single issue that seems to dominate the landscape here in Washington, 
DC.
    Ours is a program that says: We must conserve; we must advance 
technologies that are smart and reasonable and make eminent sense for 
the future of our country; and that while we're promoting additional 
supply, we must be wise about how we get supplies to the consumers; we 
must modernize an aging, decrepit, old, energy-inefficient 
infrastructure. It's about time an administration came up and told the 
truth to the American people and laid out a commonsense agenda to make 
sure the great future of this country is as bright as it possibly can 
be.
    Mr. Secretary, I'm honored to be here. Thank you for the invitation. 
Again, I want to repeat to all the good, hard-working folks here in this 
Department, thanks for your service to the greatest country on the face 
of the Earth.

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    God bless you all, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 10:15 a.m. in the cafeteria at the 
Department of Energy. In his remarks, he referred to Representative 
George Radanovich and Gov. Gray Davis of California.