Canceled.LTroll.8
Banned
The catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf right now may prove to be a result of human error, or of corporations taking dangerous shortcuts to compromise safety, or a combination of both, and I’ve launched a National Commission so that the American people will have answers on exactly what happened.
But we have to acknowledge that there are inherent risks to drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth, and these are risks that are bound to increase the harder oil extraction becomes.
We also have to acknowledge that an America run solely on fossil fuels should not be the vision we have for our children and our grandchildren.
We consume more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but have less than 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
So, without a major change in our energy policy, our dependence on oil means that we will continue to send billions of dollars of our hard-earned wealth to other countries every month, including countries in dangerous and unstable regions.
In other words, our continued dependence on fossil fuels will jeopardize our national security.
It will smother our planet, and it will continue to put our economy and our environment at risk.
Now, I understand that we can’t end our dependence on fossil fuels overnight.
That’s why I supported a careful plan of offshore oil production as one part of our overall energy strategy.
But, we can pursue such production only if it’s safe, and only if it’s used as a short-term solution while we transition to a clean energy economy, and the time has come to aggressively accelerate that transition.
The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a clean energy future.
Now, that means continuing our unprecedented effort to make everything from our homes and businesses to our cars and trucks more energy-efficient. I
t means tapping into our natural gas reserves, and moving ahead with our plan to expand our nation’s fleet of nuclear power plants.
It means rolling back billions of dollars of tax breaks to oil companies so we can prioritize investments in clean energy research and development.
But, the only way the transition to clean energy will ultimately succeed is if the private sector is fully invested in this future, if capital comes off the sidelines and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs is unleashed, and the only way to do that is by finally putting a price on carbon pollution.
But we have to acknowledge that there are inherent risks to drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth, and these are risks that are bound to increase the harder oil extraction becomes.
We also have to acknowledge that an America run solely on fossil fuels should not be the vision we have for our children and our grandchildren.
We consume more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but have less than 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
So, without a major change in our energy policy, our dependence on oil means that we will continue to send billions of dollars of our hard-earned wealth to other countries every month, including countries in dangerous and unstable regions.
In other words, our continued dependence on fossil fuels will jeopardize our national security.
It will smother our planet, and it will continue to put our economy and our environment at risk.
Now, I understand that we can’t end our dependence on fossil fuels overnight.
That’s why I supported a careful plan of offshore oil production as one part of our overall energy strategy.
But, we can pursue such production only if it’s safe, and only if it’s used as a short-term solution while we transition to a clean energy economy, and the time has come to aggressively accelerate that transition.
The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a clean energy future.
Now, that means continuing our unprecedented effort to make everything from our homes and businesses to our cars and trucks more energy-efficient. I
t means tapping into our natural gas reserves, and moving ahead with our plan to expand our nation’s fleet of nuclear power plants.
It means rolling back billions of dollars of tax breaks to oil companies so we can prioritize investments in clean energy research and development.
But, the only way the transition to clean energy will ultimately succeed is if the private sector is fully invested in this future, if capital comes off the sidelines and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs is unleashed, and the only way to do that is by finally putting a price on carbon pollution.
