Obama Remarks MIT 10.23

8/14/2019 Obama Remarks MIT 10.23

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary_____________________________________________________

___________For Immediate Release October 23,

2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENTCHALLENGING AMERICANS TO

LEAD THE GLOBAL ECONOMY IN CLEAN ENERGY

Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyBoston, Massachusetts

12:44 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:Thank you very much.Please, have a seat. Thank you. Thank you, MIT.(Applause.) I am -- I am hugely honored to be here.

It's always been a dream of mine to visit the mostprestigious school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.(Applause.) Hold on a second -- certainly the mostprestigious school in this part of Cambridge,Massachusetts. (Laughter.) And I'll probably be herefor a while -- I understand a bunch of engineeringstudents put my motorcade on top of Building 10.(Laughter.)

This tells you something about MIT --everybody hands out periodic tables. (Laughter.)What's up with that? (Laughter.)

I want I want to thank all of you for the warm


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welcome and for the work all of you are doing togenerate and test new ideas that hold so muchpromise for our economy and for our lives. And inparticular, I want to thank two outstanding MIT

professors, Eric Lander, a person you just heardfrom, Ernie Moniz, for their service on my council ofadvisors on science and technology. And they havebeen hugely helpful to us already on looking at, forexample, how the federal government can mosteffectively respond to the threat of the H1N1 virus.So I'm very grateful to them.

We've got some other special guests here I justwant to acknowledge very briefly. First of all, mygreat friend and a champion of science andtechnology here in the great Commonwealth ofMassachusetts, my friend Deval Patrick is here.(Applause.) Our Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray ishere. (Applause.) Attorney General Martha Coakleyis here. (Applause.) Auditor of the Commonwealth,

Joe DeNucci is here. (Applause.) The Mayor of thegreat City of Cambridge, Denise Simmons is in thehouse. (Applause.) The Mayor of Boston, TomMenino, is not here, but he met me at the airport andhe is doing great; he sends best wishes.

Somebody who really has been an all-star in

Capitol Hill over the last 20 years, but certainly over

the last year, on a whole range of issues --everything from Afghanistan to clean energy -- agreat friend, John Kerry. Please give John Kerry around of applause. (Applause.)

And a wonderful member of Congress -- I


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believe this is your district, is that correct, Mike?Mike Capuano. Please give Mike a big round ofapplause. (Applause.)

Now, Dr. Moniz is also the Director of MIT'sEnergy Initiative, called MITEI. And he and PresidentHockfield just showed me some of the extraordinaryenergy research being conducted at this institute:windows that generate electricity by directing light tosolar cells; light-weight, high-power batteries thataren't built, but are grown -- that was neat stuff;engineering viruses to create -- to create batteries;

more efficient lighting systems that rely onnanotechnology; innovative engineering that willmake it possible for offshore wind power plants todeliver electricity even when the air is still.

And it's a reminder that all of you are heirs to alegacy of innovation -- not just here but acrossAmerica -- that has improved our health and our

wellbeing and helped us achieve unparalleledprosperity. I was telling John and Deval on the rideover here, you just get excited being here and seeingthese extraordinary young people and theextraordinary leadership of Professor Hockfieldbecause it taps into something essential aboutAmerica -- it's the legacy of daring men and womenwho put their talents and their efforts into the pursuit

of discovery. And it's the legacy of a nation thatsupported those intrepid few willing to take risks onan idea that might fail -- but might also change theworld.

Even in the darkest of times this nation has


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seen, it has always sought a brighter horizon. Thinkabout it. In the middle of the Civil War, PresidentLincoln designated a system of land grant colleges,including MIT, which helped open the doors of higher

education to millions of people. A year -- a full yearbefore the end of World War II, President Rooseveltsigned the GI Bill which helped unleash a wave ofstrong and broadly shared economic growth. Andafter the Soviet launch of Sputnik, the first artificialsatellite to orbit the Earth, the United States wentabout winning the Space Race by investing in scienceand technology, leading not only to small steps on

the moon but also to tremendous economic benefitshere on Earth.

So the truth is, we have always been aboutinnovation, we have always been about discovery.

That's in our DNA. The truth is we also face morecomplex challenges than generations past. Amedical system that holds the promise of unlocking

new cures is attached to a health care system thathas the potential to bankrupt families and businessesand our government. A global marketplace that linksthe trader on Wall Street to the homeowner on MainStreet to the factory worker in China -- an economyin which we all share opportunity is also an economyin which we all share crisis. We face threats to oursecurity that seek -- there are threats to our security

that are based on those who would seek to exploitthe very interconnectedness and openness that's soessential to our prosperity. The system of energythat powers our economy also undermines oursecurity and endangers our planet.


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Now, while the challenges today are different,we have to draw on the same spirit of innovationthat's always been central to our success. And that'sespecially true when it comes to energy. There may

be plenty of room for debate as to how we transitionfrom fossil fuels to renewable fuels -- we allunderstand there's no silver bullet to do it. There'sgoing to be a lot of debate about how we move froman economy that's importing oil to one that'sexporting clean energy technology; how we harnessthe innovative potential on display here at MIT tocreate millions of new jobs; and how we will lead the

world to prevent the worst consequences of climatechange. There are going to be all sorts of debates,both in the laboratory and on Capitol Hill. But there'sno question that we must do all these things.

Countries on every corner of this Earth nowrecognize that energy supplies are growing scarcer,energy demands are growing larger, and rising

energy use imperils the planet we will leave to futuregenerations. And that's why the world is nowengaged in a peaceful competition to determine thetechnologies that will power the 21st century. FromChina to India, from Japan to Germany, nationseverywhere are racing to develop new ways toproducing and use energy. The nation that wins thiscompetition will be the nation that leads the global

economy. I am convinced of that. And I wantAmerica to be that nation. It's that simple.(Applause.)

That's why the Recovery Act that we passedback in January makes the largest investment in


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clean energy in history, not just to help end thisrecession, but to lay a new foundation for lastingprosperity. The Recovery Act includes $80 billion toput tens of thousands of Americans to work

developing new battery technologies for hybridvehicles; modernizing the electric grid; making ourhomes and businesses more energy efficient;doubling our capacity to generate renewableelectricity. These are creating private-sector jobsweatherizing homes; manufacturing cars and trucks;upgrading to smart electric meters; installing solarpanels; assembling wind turbines; building new

facilities and factories and laboratories all acrossAmerica. And, by the way, helping to financeextraordinary research.

In fact, in just a few weeks, right here inBoston, workers will break ground on a new Wind

Technology Testing Center, a project made possiblethrough a $25 million Recovery Act investment as

well as through the support of Massachusetts and itspartners. And I want everybody to understand --Governor Patrick's leadership and vision made thishappen. He was bragging about Massachusetts onthe way over here -- I told him, you don't have to bea booster, I already love the state. (Applause.) Buthe helped make this happen.

Hundreds of people will be put to work buildingthis new testing facility, but the benefits will extendfar beyond these jobs. For the first time, researchersin the United States will be able to test the world'snewest and largest wind turbine blades -- bladesroughly the length of a football field -- and that in


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turn will make it possible for American businesses todevelop more efficient and effective turbines, and tolead a market estimated at more than $2 trillion overthe next two decades.

This grant follows other Recovery Act

investments right here in Massachusetts that willhelp create clean energy jobs in this commonwealthand across the country. And this only builds on thework of your governor, who has endeavored to makeMassachusetts a clean energy leader -- fromincreasing the supply of renewable electricity, to

quadrupling solar capacity, to tripling thecommonwealth's investment in energy efficiency, allof which helps to draw new jobs and new industries.(Applause.) That's worth applause.

Now, even as we're investing in technologies

that exist today, we're also investing in the sciencethat will produce the technologies of tomorrow. The

Recovery Act provides the largest single boost inscientific research in history. Let me repeat that:The Recovery Act, the stimulus bill represents thelargest single boost in scientific research in history.(Applause.) An increase -- that's an increase infunding that's already making a difference right hereon this campus. And my budget also makes theresearch and experimentation tax credit permanent

-- a tax credit that spurs innovation and jobs, adding$2 to the economy for every dollar that it costs.

And all of this must culminate in the passage ofcomprehensive legislation that will finally makerenewable energy the profitable kind of energy in


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standing with leaders in the environmentalcommunity to protect the economy and the planetwe leave for our children. The House ofRepresentatives has already passed historic

legislation, due in large part to the efforts ofMassachusetts' own Ed Markey, he deserves a biground of applause. (Applause.) We're now seeingprominent Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham

joining forces with long-time leaders John Kerry onthis issue, to swiftly pass a bill through the Senate aswell. In fact, the Energy Committee, thanks to thework of its Chair, Senator Jeff Bingaman, has already

passed key provisions of comprehensive legislation.

So we are seeing a convergence. Thenaysayers, the folks who would pretend that this isnot an issue, they are being marginalized. But I thinkit's important to understand that the closer we get,the harder the opposition will fight and the morewe'll hear from those whose interest or ideology run

counter to the much needed action that we'reengaged in. There are those who will suggest thatmoving toward clean energy will destroy oureconomy -- when it's the system we currently havethat endangers our prosperity and prevents us fromcreating millions of new jobs. There are going to bethose who cynically claim -- make cynical claims thatcontradict the overwhelming scientific evidence

when it comes to climate change, claims whose onlypurpose is to defeat or delay the change that weknow is necessary.

So we're going to have to work on those folks.But understand there's also another myth that we


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have to dispel, and this one is far more dangerousbecause we're all somewhat complicit in it. It's farmore dangerous than any attack made by those whowish to stand in the way progress -- and that's the

idea that there is nothing or little that we can do. It'spessimism. It's the pessimistic notion that ourpolitics are too broken and our people too unwillingto make hard choices for us to actually deal with thisenergy issue that we're facing. And implicit in thisargument is the sense that somehow we've lostsomething important -- that fighting American spirit,that willingness to tackle hard challenges, that

determination to see those challenges to the end,that we can solve problems, that we can actcollectively, that somehow that is something of thepast.

I reject that argument. I reject it because ofwhat I've seen here at MIT. Because of what I haveseen across America. Because of what we know we

are capable of achieving when called upon to achieveit. This is the nation that harnessed electricity andthe energy contained in the atom, that developedthe steamboat and the modern solar cell. This is thenation that pushed westward and looked skyward.We have always sought out new frontiers and thisgeneration is no different.

Today's frontiers can't be found on a map.They're being explored in our classrooms and ourlaboratories, in our start-ups and our factories. Andtoday's pioneers are not traveling to some far flungplace. These pioneers are all around us -- theentrepreneurs and the inventors, the researchers,


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the engineers -- helping to lead us into the future,just as they have in the past. This is the nation thathas led the world for two centuries in the pursuit ofdiscovery. This is the nation that will lead the clean

energy economy of tomorrow, so long as all of usremember what we have achieved in the past andwe use that to inspire us to achieve even more in thefuture.

I am confident that's what's happening righthere at this extraordinary institution. And if you will

join us in what is sure to be a difficult fight in the

months and years ahead, I am confident that all ofAmerica is going to be pulling in one direction tomake sure that we are the energy leader that weneed to be.

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless

you. God bless the United States of America.(Applause.)

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Obama Remarks MIT 10.23