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    "label": "Remarks of the President to National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Youth Group [Ford Speech or Statement]",
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    "title": "Remarks of the President to National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Youth Group [Ford Speech or Statement]",
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            "day": 11,
            "logicalDate": "1975-06-11",
            "month": 6,
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    "ocrText": "Digitized from Box 12 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nJUNE 11, 1975\nOFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nREMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT\nTO THE\nNATIONAL RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION\nYOUTH GROUP\n2:25 P.M. EDT\nLet me just say I am delighted that all of you\nare here, and I congratulate you on achieving the success\nthat you have in making it possible for you to be here.\nI wish my daughter, Susan, could have been here today.\nShe just graduated from high school about a week ago. I\nknow she would have thoroughly enjoyed talking with all\nof you, meeting you. She is out in Yosemite taking a\ncourse in photography. (Laughter.)\nI think you might be interested in what her\nsenior class did for their school prom. They held it\nright here in the White House while my wife and I were\nin Europe. (Laughter.) I am sure the arrangements for\nthat were very coincidental.\nNow, holding a prom in the White House might\nsound like a pretty super idea, but it did create one\nproblem. The headmaster or principal of the school\ntold me he got a call from a very, very concerned parent\nof one of the young ladies. This parent called and said\nin a very serious manner that they had made it a practice\nnever to allow their daughter to attend a party in anyone's\nhome when the parents were away. (Laughter.)\nBut in this case they were going to make an\nexception. So after the prom we got a call from Susan\nand she said the White House was still in tact and every-\nbody had had a good time and we, of course, were delighted.\nAll of you come from areas where rural electri-\nfication is a very important part of your society. For\nabout 40 years the REA has played a very vital role in\nbringing about the electrification of rural America. When\nthe REAs first began -- I don't recall the precise\nstatistic, but there was a very great lack of electrical\npower in our rural areas, and because of the REA we have\ngone from a minimum of electrical energy in our rural\nareas to a situation today where I think we have electrical\nenergy available for people in almost every area of this\ncountry. And the REA can claim the major credit for this\ntremendous effort.\nMORE\nPage 2\nNow, I want to ask this question, and all of you\nknow the answer. Where do we get electrical energy? You\nget it from the sources such as coal, oil, natural gas,\nnuclear power. And I ask this question: How can this\ncountry grow and prosper and give the kinds of opportunities\nto all of you that you deserve if we don't have energy?\nNow, unfortunately, the circumstances are such\nthat the United States of America, after being abundant\nin energy, all its lifetime, for 198 years, today is\nfaced with a very severe and a very critical shortage of\nenergy. Today the United States imports roughly 38 to\n40 percent of its oil consumed. A few years ago we\nimported very little oil. Every day the dependence on\nimported oil becomes greater and greater.\nNow we don't expect any cutoff of our foreign\noil imports. But it did happen in October of 1973, and\nfor a period of four or five months America was literally\nlimping along with an insufficient supply of crude oil.\nWe don't produce enough domestically. It so happens that\nour daily production of domestic crude oil in this country\nis getting less and less and less, which means that our\ndependence on foreign oil becomes greater and greater and\ngreater every day.\nNow this great country should never let itself\nget into the position of being vulnerable to either price\nactions or supply actions by other countries overseas.\nYour generations are the generations that are\nmore and more critically affected than mine, because the\nUnited States in the future has to have a self-sufficiency,\nand if we don't we can't have all the blessings and the\ngood things that have been available in the past.\nWhat am I saying? I am saying we have got to\ndevelop nuclear power and produce more nuclear plants\naround the country. We have to get more natural gas and\ncrude oil production in the United States, in Alaska, and\nother areas that are potentially very important. We have\nto open a good many more coal mines. We have to use coal,\nwhich is our greatest source of energy in this country.\nThe estimates indicate we have some 300 years\nof coal supply. We have to use our ingenuity, our\nscientific capability, to find how we can take the power\nof the sun, solar heat, solar energy. We have to investigate\nand find ways to expand our geothermal energy capacities.\nWhat I am saying is America, in a wide variety\nof ways, must maximize its efforts to be self-sufficient\nso that your generation cannot be held hostage by other\nforeign governments.\nMORE\nPage 3\nWe have asked the Congress to pass energy\nlegislation which stimulates production and forces\nconservation. As you get to know your Congressmen,\nyour Senators, -- I hope you will -- urge them to pass\nan energy program, to pass energy legislation. It is\ntheir obligation to do so, for the country, for you, and\nfor the future of the world, as a matter of fact.\nNow let me conclude with this simple statement:\nI really enjoyed having the opportunity to visit with you\nthis afternoon. I understand later on you are going\nto have a happening -- if that is the right word (Laughter.)\n-- 1,000 helium-filled balloons, pizza, hot dogs,\nhamburgers, popcorn, potato chips, candied apples, a\nrock band, and dancing.\nOne of your members just invited my wife and\nmyself to come. Unfortunately, we won't be able to. Susan\nmakes it a practice never to let us attend a party in\nanyone's home when the parents aren't there. (Laughter.)\nWell, it is nice to see you. Good luck,\ncongratulations, and I do hope that you benefit from your\nexperiences here; that you go back and become enthusiastic\nsupporters of our way of life, our Government, and what\nit can do to make all of us better citizens, not only\ndomestically but otherwise.\nThis country is fortunate to have you, every one\nof you, but you are also fortunate to have this country.\nThank you very much.\nEND\n(AT 2:33 P.M. EDT)"
}