Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
7339609
label
Remarks of the President to National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Youth Group [Ford Speech or Statement]
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
7339609
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Remarks of the President to National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Youth Group [Ford Speech or Statement]
citationUrl
collections
White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
7339609
levelOfDescription
item
productionDates
day
11
logicalDate
1975-06-11
month
6
year
1975
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
d3e128e2bdd9be77
ocrText
Digitized from Box 12 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 11, 1975
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
TO THE
NATIONAL RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION
YOUTH GROUP
2:25 P.M. EDT
Let me just say I am delighted that all of you
are here, and I congratulate you on achieving the success
that you have in making it possible for you to be here.
I wish my daughter, Susan, could have been here today.
She just graduated from high school about a week ago. I
know she would have thoroughly enjoyed talking with all
of you, meeting you. She is out in Yosemite taking a
course in photography. (Laughter.)
I think you might be interested in what her
senior class did for their school prom. They held it
right here in the White House while my wife and I were
in Europe. (Laughter.) I am sure the arrangements for
that were very coincidental.
Now, holding a prom in the White House might
sound like a pretty super idea, but it did create one
problem. The headmaster or principal of the school
told me he got a call from a very, very concerned parent
of one of the young ladies. This parent called and said
in a very serious manner that they had made it a practice
never to allow their daughter to attend a party in anyone's
home when the parents were away. (Laughter.)
But in this case they were going to make an
exception. So after the prom we got a call from Susan
and she said the White House was still in tact and every-
body had had a good time and we, of course, were delighted.
All of you come from areas where rural electri-
fication is a very important part of your society. For
about 40 years the REA has played a very vital role in
bringing about the electrification of rural America. When
the REAs first began -- I don't recall the precise
statistic, but there was a very great lack of electrical
power in our rural areas, and because of the REA we have
gone from a minimum of electrical energy in our rural
areas to a situation today where I think we have electrical
energy available for people in almost every area of this
country. And the REA can claim the major credit for this
tremendous effort.
MORE
Page 2
Now, I want to ask this question, and all of you
know the answer. Where do we get electrical energy? You
get it from the sources such as coal, oil, natural gas,
nuclear power. And I ask this question: How can this
country grow and prosper and give the kinds of opportunities
to all of you that you deserve if we don't have energy?
Now, unfortunately, the circumstances are such
that the United States of America, after being abundant
in energy, all its lifetime, for 198 years, today is
faced with a very severe and a very critical shortage of
energy. Today the United States imports roughly 38 to
40 percent of its oil consumed. A few years ago we
imported very little oil. Every day the dependence on
imported oil becomes greater and greater.
Now we don't expect any cutoff of our foreign
oil imports. But it did happen in October of 1973, and
for a period of four or five months America was literally
limping along with an insufficient supply of crude oil.
We don't produce enough domestically. It so happens that
our daily production of domestic crude oil in this country
is getting less and less and less, which means that our
dependence on foreign oil becomes greater and greater and
greater every day.
Now this great country should never let itself
get into the position of being vulnerable to either price
actions or supply actions by other countries overseas.
Your generations are the generations that are
more and more critically affected than mine, because the
United States in the future has to have a self-sufficiency,
and if we don't we can't have all the blessings and the
good things that have been available in the past.
What am I saying? I am saying we have got to
develop nuclear power and produce more nuclear plants
around the country. We have to get more natural gas and
crude oil production in the United States, in Alaska, and
other areas that are potentially very important. We have
to open a good many more coal mines. We have to use coal,
which is our greatest source of energy in this country.
The estimates indicate we have some 300 years
of coal supply. We have to use our ingenuity, our
scientific capability, to find how we can take the power
of the sun, solar heat, solar energy. We have to investigate
and find ways to expand our geothermal energy capacities.
What I am saying is America, in a wide variety
of ways, must maximize its efforts to be self-sufficient
so that your generation cannot be held hostage by other
foreign governments.
MORE
Page 3
We have asked the Congress to pass energy
legislation which stimulates production and forces
conservation. As you get to know your Congressmen,
your Senators, -- I hope you will -- urge them to pass
an energy program, to pass energy legislation. It is
their obligation to do so, for the country, for you, and
for the future of the world, as a matter of fact.
Now let me conclude with this simple statement:
I really enjoyed having the opportunity to visit with you
this afternoon. I understand later on you are going
to have a happening -- if that is the right word (Laughter.)
-- 1,000 helium-filled balloons, pizza, hot dogs,
hamburgers, popcorn, potato chips, candied apples, a
rock band, and dancing.
One of your members just invited my wife and
myself to come. Unfortunately, we won't be able to. Susan
makes it a practice never to let us attend a party in
anyone's home when the parents aren't there. (Laughter.)
Well, it is nice to see you. Good luck,
congratulations, and I do hope that you benefit from your
experiences here; that you go back and become enthusiastic
supporters of our way of life, our Government, and what
it can do to make all of us better citizens, not only
domestically but otherwise.
This country is fortunate to have you, every one
of you, but you are also fortunate to have this country.
Thank you very much.
END
(AT 2:33 P.M. EDT)