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Personal Transcript of President Obama's speech of 3/29/2012
Today the members of Congress have a simple choice to make. They can stand with the big oil companies, or they can stand with the American people. Right now the biggest oil companies are raking in record profits. Profits that go up every time folks pull up into a gas station. But on top of these record profits, oil companies are getting billions a year, billions a year, in tax payer subsidies - a subsidy they have enjoyed year after year for the last century. Think about that. It's like hitting the American people twice. You are already paying a premium at the pump right now. And on top of that Congress (up until this point) thought that it was a good idea to send billions of dollars more in tax dollars more to the oil industry.
It's not as if these companies can't stand on their own. Last year the three biggest U.S. oil companies took home more than $80 billion dollars in profits. Exxon pocketed nearly 4.7 million dollars every hour. And when the price of oil goes up, prices at the pump go up, and so do these companies profits. In fact one analysis shows that every time gas goes up by a penny, these companies pocket another 200 million dollars in quarterly profits. Meanwhile, these companies pay a lower tax rate than most other companies on their investments - partly because we are giving them billions in tax giveaways every year.
Now I want to make clear that we all know that drilling has to be a key part of our overall energy strategy. We want US oil companies to be doing well. We want them to succeed. That's why under my administration we've opened up millions of acres of federal lands and waters to oil and gas production. We've quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs to a record high. We've added enough oil and gas pipeline to circle the earth and then some. And just yesterday we announced the next step for potential new oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic. But the fact is we're producing more oil right now than we have in eight years and we're importing less of it as well. For two years in a row Americans bought less oil from other countries than we produce here at home - for the first time in over a decade. So American oil is booming. The oil industry is doing just fine. With record profits and rising production, I'm not worried about the big oil companies. With high oil prices around the world, they've got more than enough incentive to produce even more oil. That's why I think it's time they got by without more help from tax payers who are already having a tough enough time paying the bills and filling up their gas tanks. I think it's curious that some folks in Congress - who are the first to belittle investments in new sources of energy - are the ones who are fighting the hardest to maintain these giveaways for the oil companies.
Instead of tax payer giveaways to an industry that has never been more profitable we should be using that money to double down on investments in clean energy technologies that have never been more promising. Investments in wind power, solar power, and bio-fuels. Investments in fuel efficient cars and trucks, and energy efficient homes and buildings. That's the future. That's the only way we are going to break this cycle of high gas prices that happen year after year after year as the economy is growing. The only time you start seeing lower gas prices is when the economy is doing badly. That's not the kind of pattern we want to be in. We want the economy to be doing well, and people be able to afford their energy costs.
And keep in mind we can't just drill our way out of this problem. As I said, oil production here in the United States is doing very well. And it's been doing well even as gas prices are going up. Well the reason is because we use more than 20% of the world's oil, but we only have 2% of the world's known oil reserves. That means we could drill every drop of American oil tomorrow, but we'd still have to buy oil from other countries to make up the difference. We'd still have to depend on other countries to meet our energy needs. And because it's a world market, the fact that we're doing more here in the United States, doesn't necessarily help us because even US oil companies are selling that oil on a world-wide market. They're not keeping it just for us. And that means if there is rising demand from around the world then the prices are going to go up.
That's not the future I want for America. I want folks like these back here and the folks in front to me, to have to pay more at the pump every time there's some unrest in the Middle East, and oil speculators get nervous about whether there's going to be enough supply. I don't want our kids to be held hostage to events on the other side of the world. I want us to control our own destiny. I want us to forge our own future. That's why as long as I'm President, America is going to pursue an "all of the above" energy strategy. Which means we will continue developing our oil and gas resources in a robust and responsible way. But it also means we are going to Keep developing a more advanced home-grown bio-fuels. The kinds that are already powering truck fleets.
We're going to keep investing in clean energy - like the wind power and solar power that's already lighting thousands of homes and creating thousands of jobs. We're going to keep manufacturing cars and trucks to get more miles to the gallon - so you can fill up every two weeks instead of every week. We're going to keep building more homes and businesses that waste less energy so that you are in charge of your own energy bills. We're going to do all of this by harnessing our most inexhaustible resource - American ingenuity, American imagination. That's what we need to keep going. That's what's at stake right now. That's the choice that we face. And that's the choice that's facing Congress today.
They can either vote to spend billions of dollars more in oil subsidies that keep us trapped in the past, or they can vote to end these tax payer subsidies that aren't needed to boost oil production, so that we can invest in the future. It's that simple. As long as I'm President I'm betting on the future. And the people I've talked to around the country - including the people who are behind me here today, they put their faith in the future as well. That's what we do as Americans. That's who we are. We innovate. We discover. We seek new solutions to some of our biggest challenges. And ultimately, because we stick with it, we succeed. And I believe we are going to do that again.
Today, the American people are going to be watching Congress to see if they have that same faith
Thank you very much everybody.
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