On this day in 1979, President Jimmy Carter addresses the nation via live television to discuss the nation\u2019s energy crisis and accompanying recession.<\/p>\n
Carter prefaced his talk about energy policy with an explanation of why he believed the American economy remained in crisis. He recounted a meeting he had hosted at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, with leaders in the fields of business, labor, education, politics and religion. Although the energy crisis and recession were the main topics of conversation, Carter heard from the attendees that Americans were also suffering from a deeper moral and spiritual crisis. This lack of \u201cmoral and spiritual confidence,\u201d he concluded, was at the core of America\u2019s inability to hoist itself out of its economic troubles. He also admitted that part of the problem was his failure to provide strong leadership on many issues, particularly energy and oil consumption.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 1979, America could still feel the effects of OPEC\u2019s (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) 1973 cuts in oil production. Carter quoted one of the Camp David meeting participants as saying that America\u2019s \u201cneck is stretched over the fence and OPEC has a knife.\u201d In addition, inflation had reached an all-time high during Carter\u2019s term. Americans saw the federal government as a bloated bureaucracy that had become stagnant and was failing to serve the people. Politics, Carter said, was full of corruption, inefficiency and evasiveness; he claimed these problems grew out of a deeper, \u201cfundamental threat to American democracy.\u201d He was not referring to challenges to civil liberties or the country\u2019s political structure or military prowess, however, but to what he called a \u201ccrisis of confidence\u201d that led to domestic turmoil and \u201cthe loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a time when Europeans and the Japanese began out-producing the U.S. in energy-efficient automobiles and some other advanced technologies, Carter said that Americans had lost faith in being the world\u2019s leader in \u201cprogress.\u201d He claimed that Americans obsession with self-indulgence and material goods had trumped spiritualism and community values. Carter, who after the presidency would teach Sunday School, tried to rally the public to have faith in the future of America. After restoring faith in itself, the nation would be able to march on to the \u201cthe battlefield of energy [where] we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter then launched into his energy policy plans, which included the implementation of mandatory conservation efforts for individuals and businesses and deep cuts in the nation\u2019s dependence on foreign oil through import quotas. He also pledged a \u201cmassive commitment of funds and resources\u201d to develop alternative fuel sources including coal, plant products and solar power. He outlined the creation of a \u201csolar bank\u201d that he said would eventually supply 20 percent of the nation\u2019s energy. To jumpstart this program, Carter asked Congress to form an \u201cenergy mobilization board\u201d modeled after the War Production Board of World War II, and asked the legislature to enact a \u201cwindfall profits tax\u201d immediately to fight inflation and unemployment.<\/p>\n
Carter ended by asking for input from average citizens to help him devise an energy agenda for the 1980s. Carter, a liberal president, was heading into a presidential campaign just as a tide of conservatism was rising, led by presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan, who went on to win the 1980 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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