Obama to Senate on Climate, Energy: "We cannot be afraid of the future"

by Emily Gertz · 2009-06-29 08:32:00 UTC
Topics:

Above: President Obama used the whole of his latest weekly address to laud the passage of the House climate and clean energy bill. This video by AP left off the final, forward-looking words of his statement:

Now my call to every Senator, as well as to every American, is this:  We cannot be afraid of the future.  And we must not be prisoners of the past.  Don’t believe the misinformation out there that suggests there is somehow a contradiction between investing in clean energy and economic growth.  It’s just not true.

We have been talking about energy for decades.  But there is no longer a disagreement over whether our dependence on foreign oil is endangering our security.  It is.  There is no longer a debate about whether carbon pollution is placing our planet in jeopardy.  It’s happening.  And there is no longer a question about whether the jobs and industries of the 21st century will be centered around clean, renewable energy.

The question is, which country will create these jobs and these industries?  I want that answer to be the United States of America.  And I believe that the American people and the men and women they sent to Congress share that view.  So I want to congratulate the House for passing this bill, and I want to urge the Senate to take this opportunity to come together and meet our obligations – to our constituents, to our children, to God’s creation, and to future generations.

Full transcript on whitehouse.gov.

Emily Gertz
PREVIOUS STORY:
Across the Change-i-verse
NEXT STORY:
Stopping the Water Grab in Nevada

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.