[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 15 (Monday, April 21, 2008)]
[Pages 527-529]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the President's Environmental Youth Awards Ceremony

April 17, 2008

    Thanks for coming. Please be seated, and welcome to the Rose Garden. 
And thanks for bringing such good weather. [Laughter]

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    Laura and I are thrilled you're here, and we are thrilled to honor 
young Americans who are helping their communities by safeguarding the 
environment. I'm really pleased that Steve is with us too. Thanks for 
coming. Debbie, thanks for being here.
    I want to welcome your parents and your sponsors, and I know they're 
incredibly proud of you. I appreciate the dedication that you've shown 
to improve neighborhoods. I really thank the fact that you're a person 
who's willing to be a responsible citizen and take action.
    I'm pleased to have all the regional administrators here. It's good 
to see friends from around the country. Thanks for coming. Thanks for 
serving the country.
    I appreciate the fact that you know that we live in a country of 
unbelievable splendor and beauty. And no matter which State we call 
home, we can always find the work of the Almighty in our State. And 
today we honor 36 young men and women who have devoted their time, 
energy, and creativity to being good stewards of that creation. And we 
appreciate the work you're doing to preserve our beauty for generations 
to come.
    Students here today come from all across the country. And your 
accomplishments are as diverse as your home States. Steve will read out 
the accomplishments, but I'll just touch on a few.
    First, for the people from New York who collected used books that 
would have ended up in landfills and donated them to schools and nursing 
homes and homeless shelters.
    Got people here from Massachusetts who worked with local fishermen 
to switch from using lead weights to using substances that didn't have 
the potential to poison local birds.
    Virginia--the good folks from Virginia used--recycled electronic 
equipment so it wouldn't end up polluting the environment. Makes a lot 
of sense; it's a rational plan.
    Good people from Tennessee who led hundreds of members of the 
community to switch to more energy-efficient light bulbs, just like 
Laura insisted we did here at the White House. [Laughter]
    How about the good folks from Washington State who worked with the 
school district and helped save more than a half a million dollars by 
encouraging teachers to reduce their energy use in the classroom.
    These are practical ways to help protect our environment. And one 
way to thank you is to have the Administrator present awards to you. You 
set a great example for people around the country, and you set a great 
example for the Government. We're focused on conserving and protecting 
our environment. I don't know if you know this or not, but in--we 
created the Northwestern Hawaii Island Marine National Monument, which 
is the largest single conservation area in our Nation's history and the 
largest protected marine area in the world. And we did so because there 
are more than 7,000 species in the monument, and a quarter of them exist 
nowhere else on the Earth. And the good news is, Laura went over to 
dedicate the monument and did a fabulous job.
    We're working hard to protect our wildlife. Through the principle of 
cooperative conservation, which means we bring together different 
stakeholders--conservationists and sportsmen and local leaders and 
Federal, State, and tribal authorities--to protect species that are at 
risk.
    We're protecting our--and strengthening our National Park System. 
One way to dedicate ourselves to conservation is to take that which is 
already in existence and make it better. And so last year, I announced 
the National Park Centennial Initiative, which is a great plan to 
enhance our national parks during the decade leading up to the 100th 
anniversary in 2016. This is an initiative that's going to allow the 
Park System to hire more park rangers and to increase the use of 
technology and upgrade its facilities and its historic buildings. I'm 
looking forward to working with Congress to make sure this effort's 
fully funded.
    And finally, we're working to ensure that America can develop 
alternative energy sources and develop new technologies so we can 
address global climate change without harming the economy. And I believe 
we can do both. I believe we can be good stewards of the environment, 
and I believe we can grow our economy, which we're going to have to do 
to be able to afford the technologies necessary to change.

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    So yesterday I announced an important national goal, which is 
stopping the growth in U.S. greenhouse gases emissions by 2025. It's a 
goal we can achieve. It's important to set realistic goals and then work 
hard to achieve those goals.
    The key to keeping the--making this work is to unleash the 
entrepreneurial spirit of the country and to develop the new 
technologies that will allow us to utilize cleaner, more efficient 
energy sources, which, by the way, will have the beneficial effect of 
becoming--making us less dependent on oil, particularly oil that comes 
from parts of the world where the people may not exactly like us. So in 
other words, we're working on our national security and our economic 
security and, at the same time, having the beneficial effect of being 
wise stewards of the environment.
    But today you're tired of hearing about an old guy speak. We want to 
hear the stories of young people--young people who will be the future 
leaders of the country, young peoples who have laid out a strategy as to 
how to protect their local communities and have done so.
    And so I welcome you here. I ask Laura and Steve to join me here on 
the podium to present the awards. Congratulations. Welcome to the Rose 
Garden, and thanks for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 10:03 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Environmental Protection Agency 
Administrator Stephen L. Johnson and his wife, Debbie.