Quotable Quote

"It would be nice if we could produce our way out of this problem, but it’s just not possible. We only have 3% of the world’s oil reserves. We could start drilling in ANWR today, and at its peak, which would be more than a decade from now, it would give us enough oil to take care of our transportation needs for about a month. As a result, every single hour we spend $18 million on foreign oil…Budding democracies, despotic regimes, or havens of terror—they get our money because we need their oil."

"[Bush’s] funding for renewable fuels is at the same level it was the day he took office. He refuses to call for even a modest increase in fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks….And while he cannot seem to find the funding for any of these energy proposals, he has no problem allowing the oil compa¬nies to stiff taxpayers $7 billion in royalties that they owe us for drilling on public lands. These are the same oil companies that are currently enjoying the highest profits on record."

"America's lifeblood is its energy supply, and foreign energy dependence makes American homes and businesses vulnerable. Our economy and our national security are hurt by the fact that we have grown way too dependent on foreign energy, and way too dependent on oil as our major energy source. This is not a new problem—what the Bush administration calls our "addiction to oil" took years to set in. But, the fact is that America's reliance on foreign oil has steadily increased to 65 percent under President Bush, not decreased. We need to declare independence from foreign oil, and we need to do it now."

"Our present system of energy is weakening our national security, hurting our pocketbooks, violating our common values and threatening our children's future. Right now, instead of national security dictating our energy policy, our failed energy policy dictates our national security."

"It is not just money we need. Kennedy did much more than just write a budget. He wrote a new vision statement for the country. He created a national consensus that we were going to do whatever it took to reach that national goal. When young minds of a scientific bent asked ‘what they could do for their country,’ their answer was frequently to go into the space program. Our national leadership must now rekindle that sense of national purpose."

"If the story of the 20th century was of a tidal wave of democracy sweeping across the globe, the emerging story of the 21st century is of that wave being swallowed underneath a flood of crude. As long as the tyrants who have the lucky fortune to sit on top of massive oil reserves can prop up their regimes through huge petroleum profits, there will be no reform. Finding alternatives to oil is a key to democratic, economic and social reform in much of the world."

"We need to send hundreds of millions of dollars down to our public high schools, vocational colleges, and community colleges to begin training people in the green-collar work of the future -- things like solar-panel installation, retrofitting buildings that are leaking energy, wastewater reclamation, organic food, materials reuse and recycling … rather than creating job-training pipelines that put these kids at the back of the line for the last century's pollution-based jobs, we need to be creating opportunities for them to be at the front of the line for the new clean and green jobs."

"I don't think God is going to ask us how he created the earth, but he will ask us what we did with what he created."

"A bold initiative for energy independence will create three million jobs. We’re going to create jobs in manufacturing, in farms, and in construction… The initiatives that we put forth will create jobs in the areas of research and development, in the areas of greening our buildings and our cities. It is a tremendous opportunity for America as we consider alternative energy and at the same time reduce our dependency on foreign oils."

"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, ‘Well, I read a science fiction novel that tell me it's not a problem.’ If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action."