Secretary Salazar Addresses
America’s Energy Future in Earth Day Message
April 22, 2009
Announcer: This is a Podcast from the U.S. Department of the Interior
Secretary Salazar: Hello, I’m Ken Salazar Secretary Interior, I want to wish you a very happy Earth Day, 2009.
The time has come for a new, clean energy policy for America.
An energy policy that cuts our dependence on foreign oil.
An energy policy that creates new, clean energy jobs here at home.
An energy policy that protects our environment and our climate.
But how do we get there from here? Last year alone, we spent $700 billion to import oil from foreign countries.
The answer in my view lies here at home, where we can power a renewable energy revolution with American resources.
Here at the Department of the Interior, we manage America’s public lands – your lands – and we are beginning to put them to use to produce clean, renewable energy.
We’re talking about new wind farms off of our coasts, so that we can deliver power up and down the Eastern seaboard.
We’re talking about harnessing the power of the sun with solar power plants from the deserts of the Southwest. Wind power from the Great Plains. Geothermal from the Northwest. Biofuels.
These American landscapes, with their unharnessed renewable energy potential, are the new energy frontier for America and President Obama.
Here at the Department of Interior we are opening the new energy frontier with forward-looking policies that help us protect our environment while powering a clean energy economy that will create millions of new jobs here at home.
I hope you will follow our progress on www.doi.gov. Thanks for visiting, and Happy Earth Day, 2009.
Announcer: This has been a Podcast from the United States Department of the Interior Radio News Service.