Monthly Archives: February 2012

Text of President Obama’s Speech at University of Miami, Feb. 23, 2012

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________

EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY

February 23, 2012

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery

Energy Event

University of Miami

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Miami, Florida

As Prepared for Delivery –

Hello, Miami! Thank you, Erica, for that introduction. I also want to thank your president, and this country’s former Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala. I want to thank Senator Bill Nelson for being here. And I want to thank your Congresswoman, my friend Debbie Wasserman Schultz for joining us today.

It is great to be back in sunny Florida. I still don’t know how you all make it to class every day down here. In another life, I’d stay in Orlando for the NBA All-Star weekend, but these days I have a few other things on my plate.
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Liveblog continued

15. Florida is big on wind power, an example of renewable energy that need support.

16. “I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy.” [this after praising shale!]

17. Must develop all sources of energy, so US isn’t hostage to “events on the other side of the world.”

….this is clearly a gas tax rise inoculation speech ….

18. Make energy out of aalge. You’ve got lots of that.

19. But remember there’s no silver bullet and anyone who promises a quick fix is wrong.

20. We have great imagination and human resources to replace

21. “Easiest thing in the world to make phony election year promises” about energy. Harder to have a sustained plan to solve the problem that will take more than a decade.

22. The moon project. Great past. Teaches us we have the power to solve big problems. “This is going to be one of the great challenges for your generation.”

23. The greatest country in the world

…and wows the crowd on departure by making a “U”!

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Liveblog of speech

I’ll update this one as we go. Everything is a paraphrase (or snark) unless in quotes.

1. He’s for US manufactures.

2. Rising gas prices are “like a tax” out of your paycheck.

3. Those rascally GOP guys are “licking their chops” about rising gas prices. They’ll have a 3-point plan for $2 gas: “step one is to drill…drill…drill”.

4. “That’s not a plan … it’s a bumper sticker.”

5. Need a “sustained all of the above strategy”: drill, biofuel, wind, and nukes.

6. The US will drill and drill, but it’s not enough. “The oil market is global” [he doesn’t say we don’t have any hope of making enough for how much we use.] [Correction — see #9 below.]

7. When uncertainty increases, Wall St. speculation drives up prices more.

8. Global demand – especially China and Brazil – continues to go up as they buy a car “just like Americans do” demand will grow even more. “Anyone who tells you that we can drill our way out of this problem doesn’t know what they are talking about, or isn’t telling you the truth.”

9. US consumes 20% of the world’s oil, but has only 2% of the world’s reserves. “We can’t just rely on fossil fuels.” We need new technology and “use energy smarter.”

10. US reliance on foreign oil is down (in % terms).

11. We’re requiring higher fuel economy standards.

12. When you guy a car in a decade, you’ll be able to fill up your car every 2 weeks. That will reduce consumption by 2 million barrels per day [out of what, I wonder].

13. But we need invest in ‘every available source of American-made energy.’

14. There is no short-term silver bullet….but they’ll look to do what they can anyway. But the long-term strategy is “the right incentives”. $4bn of tax money subsidizes oil companies. They don’t need it. Politicians who support oil companies should be forced to justify it. “A century of subsidies is long enough.”

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Here We Go

UM Engineering Student is introducing the President. There’s a live feed.

And it begins!

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The Music

Just changed to a presidential march, and everyone got hopeful. But nothing yet. I guess it’s better than the Monty Python song they played over and over a bit earlier.

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The View Directly to My Right

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