March 02, 2012
| 14:33
Effective conservation is about more than protecting the environment, it's about strengthening the economy.
Remarks by the President at Conservation Conference
Department of Interior
Washington, D.C.
5:32 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
(Applause.) Thank
you so much. Everybody, have a seat. Have a seat.
(Applause.) Well,
it is good to have all of you in here. Welcome to Washington.
I want to thank Ken Salazar for the introduction. Did everybody know
that it's his birthday today?
(Laughter.) All right -- has he milked
that enough?
(Laughter.) I just want to make sure everybody wished him
a happy birthday. Turning 40 is tough.
(Laughter.)
We’ve also got our outstanding Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack,
in the house.
(Applause.) Our wonderful EPA Administrator, Lisa
Jackson, is with us.
(Applause.) And I want to thank all of you for
being a part of this conference.
Now, I have to say that this is a pretty diverse group here today.
We’ve got hunters and fishermen; we've got farmers and ranchers; we've
got conservationists; we've got small business owners; we've got local
government leaders; we've got tribal leaders. And some of you may have
just wandered in -- I don't know.
(Laughter.) But you’re all here for
the same reason. Each of you has a deep appreciation for the incredible
natural resources, the incredible bounty that we’ve been blessed with
as a nation. And you’re working hard every day to make sure those
resources are around for my daughters and your children and hopefully
their children to enjoy.
Doing that takes creativity. The great Aldo Leopold once said that
conservation is "a positive exercise of skill and insight, not merely a
negative exercise of abstinence and caution." It's not just about doing
nothing; it's about doing something affirmative to make sure that we
are passing on this incredible blessing that we have. And you also know
that effective conservation is about more than just protecting our
environment -- it’s about strengthening our economy. When we put in
place new common-sense rules to reduce air pollution, like we did in
December, it was to prevent our kids from breathing in dangerous
chemicals. That's something we should all be able to agree on. But it
will also create new jobs, building and installing all sorts of
pollution control technology. And since it will prevent thousands of
heart attacks and cases of childhood asthma, it will also take some
strain off our health care system.
When we make a commitment to restore a million acres of grasslands and
wetlands and wildlife habitat -- like the Department of Agriculture and
Interior did today -- we’re not just preserving our land and water for
the next generation. We’re also making more land available for hunting
and fishing. And we’re bolstering an outdoor economy that supports more
than 9 million jobs and brings in more than a trillion dollars a year.
(Applause.)
And when we make it easier to visit this country -- like we've done
recently at accelerating the process for foreign travelers to get visas
-- we’re not just boosting tourism in big cities and places like Disney
World. We’re helping more people discover our parks and our mountains
and our beaches. And more visitors means more people renting cars and
staying in hotels and eating at our restaurants and buying our
equipment.
So the work you’re doing today is important if we’re going to grow our
economy and put more people back to work. But conservation is also
important when it comes to another issue that I’ve been talking about
lately, and that's developing new sources of American-made energy.
Obviously, gas prices are on a lot of folks’ minds right now. And
we’re getting another painful reminder of why developing new energy is
so important for our future. Of course, because it’s an election year,
everybody is trotting out their 3-point plans for $2.00 gas. And you
know what that involves, is you drill and then you drill and then you
drill some more. We’ve heard this for 30 years.
The American people know better. They understand we can’t just drill
our way out of high gas prices. We’re doing everything we can to boost
U.S. production. But if we’re going to take control of our energy
future and avoid these gas price spikes in the future, then we’ve got to
have a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every
available source of American energy -– yes, oil and gas, but also wind
and solar and biofuels, and more.
And we’re making progress on this front. In 2010, our dependence on
foreign oil was under 50 percent for the first time in 13 years.
(Applause.) Because of the investments we’ve made, the use of clean,
renewable energy in this country has nearly doubled.
(Applause.) And
in my State of the Union address, I announced that we’re allowing the
development of clean energy on enough public land to power 3 million
homes -– 3 million homes. That protects our environment and it helps
families and businesses save money.
But while it’s important to use public lands to develop things like
wind and solar energy, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we’ve
also got to focus on protecting our planet.
That’s why Teddy Roosevelt made sure that as we build this country and
harvest its bounty, we also protect its beauty. That’s part of our
national character. And historically, it’s been bipartisan.
That’s why, even as our country grew by leaps and bounds, we made sure
to set aside places like the Grand Canyon for our children and our
grandchildren. It’s why my administration has stood up to protect its
waters. That’s why President Kennedy directed a portion of the revenues
from oil and gas production to help communities build trails and ball
fields –- and why my administration has fought to protect the Land and
Water Conservation Fund.
(Applause.)
That’s why the hunters and anglers in this country have always been
willing to pay a few extra bucks for a fishing license or a duck stamp
that helps protect streams and habitats -- because they want to make
sure that their grandkids can enjoy these same pastimes. That’s why my
administration is expanding access to public lands so that more
Americans can cast a rod or teach their children how to hunt.
We have to keep investing in the technology and manufacturing that
helps us lead the world, but we’ve also got to protect the places that
help define who we are, that help shape our character and our soul as a
nation. Places that help attract visitors and create jobs, but that
also give something to our kids that is irreplaceable.
And all of us have a role to play. One of the first bills I signed
after taking office was the Public Lands bill that protected more than a
thousand miles of rivers and established new national parks and
trails.
(Applause.) And two years ago, thanks to some great work by my
Cabinet, and Ken Salazar especially, I kicked off the America’s Great
Outdoors initiative to support conservation projects happening in all 50
states, including Fort Monroe in Virginia, which just became America’s
396th national park.
(Applause.)
Right now, we’re restoring the River of Grass in the Everglades,
providing clean water to millions of residents --
(applause) -- creating
thousands of jobs -- construction jobs -- in southern Florida.
We need to keep moving forward on projects like these. And I know
we’ve got ranchers and farmers and landowners here today who represent
places like the Crown of the Continent in Montana, the Dakota
Grasslands, and everywhere in between. We need to keep working to
protect these incredible landscapes that all of you know so well.
The bottom line is this: There will always be people in this country
who say we’ve got to choose between clean air and clean water and a
growing economy, between doing right by our environment and putting
people back to work. And I’m here to tell you that is a false choice.
(Applause.) That is a false choice.
(Applause.) With smart,
sustainable policies, we can grow our economy today and protect our
environment for ourselves and our children.
We know it’s possible. And we know it because of what’s been happening
in communities like yours, where compromise isn’t a dirty word, where
folks can recognize a good idea no matter where it comes from.
A while back, I heard a story about the Rogue River in Oregon. Every
year, the Rogue is filled with salmon swimming upstream to spawn. But
because factories were allowed to -- allowing warm water to run back
into the river, the temperature was becoming too high for the salmon to
survive. So to fix the problem, the town could have required the
company to buy expensive cooling equipment, but that would have hurt the
local economy. Instead, they decided to pay farmers and ranchers to
plant trees along the banks of the river, and that helped to cool the
water at a fraction of the cost. So it worked for business; it worked
for farmers; it worked for salmon.
And those are the kinds of ideas that we need in this country -– ideas
that preserve our environment, protect our bottom line, and connect more
Americans to the great outdoors.
And this is personally important to me. Some of you know that I grew
up in Hawaii mostly, and we got some pretty nice outdoors in Hawaii.
(Laughter.) And you spend a lot of time outdoors, and you learn very
early on to appreciate this incredible splendor. But I remember when I
was 11, I had never been to the mainland, and my grandmother and my
mother and my sister, who at the time was two, decided we were going to
take a big summer trip. And we traveled across the country. And mostly
we took Greyhound buses. My grandmother was getting -- she had some
eye problems, and so she couldn’t see that well, so she was a little
nervous about driving long distances. Sometimes we took the train. And
we went to the usual spots -- Disneyland. I was 11, right?
(Laughter.)
But I still remember traveling up to Yellowstone, and coming over a
hill, and suddenly just hundreds of deer and seeing bison for the first
time, and seeing Old Faithful. And I remember that trip giving me a
sense of just how immense and how grand this country was, and how
diverse it was -- and watching folks digging for clams in Puget Sound,
and watching ranchers, and seeing our first Americans guide me through a
canyon in Arizona. And it gave you a sense of just what it is that
makes America special.
And so when I went back to Yellowstone, with Ken and my daughters --
that was the first time they had been -- and I'm standing there -- I'm
thinking not only about them and the first time they're seeing this, but
I'm also remembering back to when my grandmother and my mother had
shown me this amazing country so many years before.
And that is part of what we have to fight for. That's what's critical,
is making sure that we're always there to bequeath that gift to the
next generation.
(Applause.) And if you'll work with me, I promise
I'll do everything I can --
(applause) -- I'll do everything I can to
help protect our economy but also protect this amazing planet that we
love and this great country that we've been blessed with.
Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless America.
END
5:46 P.M. EST
