THE PRESIDENT ON NEW ENERGY

Obama's Energy Speech in Nevada
Barack Obama, March 21, 2012 (RealClearPolitics)

[The President:] “…According to experts, we’ve now got more than 5,600 solar companies nationwide, and many of them are small businesses. There are solar companies in every single state in the Union. And today, we’re producing enough solar energy to power 730,000 American homes. And because of the investments we’ve made as a nation, the use of renewable energies has actually doubled…So this is an industry on the rise…”

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[The President:] “…Now, you’d think given this extraordinary site, given the fact that this is creating jobs, generating power, helping to keep our environment clean, making us more competitive globally, you’d think that everybody would be supportive of solar power. That’s what you’d think. And yet, if some politicians had their way, there won’t be any more public investment in solar energy. There won’t be as many new jobs and new businesses…One member of Congress who shall remain unnamed called these jobs "phony" -- called them phony jobs. I mean, think about that mindset, that attitude that says because something is new, it must not be real. If these guys were around when Columbus set sail, they’d be charter members of the Flat Earth Society…”

[The President:] “…if we keep on this track, and we’re at the cutting edge, then that ultimately will make our economy stronger and it will make the United States stronger. It will create jobs. It will create businesses. It will create opportunities for middle-class Americans and folks who want to get into the middle class. That's who we are. That's what we’re about…So I want everybody here to know that as long as I’m President, we will not walk away from the promise of clean energy.”

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[The President:] “We have subsidized oil companies for a century. We want to encourage production of oil and gas, and make sure that wherever we've got American resources, we are tapping into them. But they don’t need an additional incentive when gas is $3.75 a gallon, when oil is $1.20 a barrel, $1.25 a barrel. They don’t need additional incentives. They are doing fine…A century of subsidies to oil companies is long enough. It's time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s rarely been more profitable, and double down on investments in an energy industry that has never been more promising…Congress needs to pass more tax credits for projects like this one; needs to provide certainty when it comes to these tax credits. We need to go out there and do what a lot of states are doing right now, which is saying, let's get a certain percentage of our energy from clean energy sources…We need to keep Americans on the job. We need to keep these homes powered by clean energy. We need to support the businesses that are doing it…”