United States Jaycees Remarks at a Meeting With Members of the Executive Committee and State Presidents.

That's the same kind of reception I get from the Washington press corps at my press conferences. [Laughter]

President Bechtol and distinguished leaders of the U.S. Jaycees:

It's an honor and a pleasure for me to welcome you here. I owe you a lot. Not only have you helped me in extremely difficult times, such as the passing of the Panama Canal treaty legislation last year, but you've been in the forefront of many other challenging issues, because you've got a lot of courage, you're well-organized, you're dynamic and aggressive, you're strong and patriotic, and as Jaycees you're united in serving ),our country. And I'm grateful to you for it.

Also, I would not be living in this house had I not, as a young, budding student of Georgia politics, gone to the State Jaycee conventions to see how the elections were conducted. [Laughter] Last election, in '76, when the going got tough, I remembered those days, and the memories came flooding back to me. And I was able, in those final, elbowing phases of the campaign for President, to win, because I remembered what I'd learned from you.

Tomorrow you'll get a briefing on the SALT treaties from Dr. Brzezinski and perhaps others, but today I want to talk to you about a challenge that's as serious as any that has faced our country. We've got a strong nation and a great nation, as you so well know and as you so well represent. And as you also know, down through history our country, when it's been challenged, has responded successfully. We have never failed to meet a difficult challenge or to overcome an obstacle or to answer a question or to solve a problem, provided we could detect and understand the challenge to our country.

As I said many times on my trip down the river to small and large groups that assembled along the shoreline, in World War I, World War II, even the Great Depression, Americans could see the challenge to our country. And in understanding the challenge, we responded. We put aside differences. We developed a respect for our own governments. Families united, communities united, and in spite of adversity, America became a nation which could work together. Now we've got a challenge that's not so easy to see. It's just as important.

My prime responsibility as President, above all others, is to guarantee the security of my country, your country. And our security is threatened now, because we are overly dependent on imported oil. We import about one-half the total oil we use. We export about $70 billion this year-American money—to pay for that oil, and along with the oil, we import inflation and unemployment and dependence on an uncertain supply at an uncontrollable price. The last 3 or 4 months, for instance, the inflation rate would have been almost exactly constant. It would not have changed a quarter of 1 percent had it not been for energy. But oil, because of OPEC decisions, is going up, this last 3 months, at an annual rate of inflation of 100 percent.

Our country has never had an energy policy. Decisions have always been made in the Congress primarily as the oil companies chose—and I don't criticize them because of it—because there never was a reason until recently for others, consumers, to rally and say something has got to be done to give our Nation a clear concept of where we go in the future on energy.

The basic thrust of what we're trying to do depends primarily upon conservation the saving of energy, the elimination of waste. That's it, as far as the number one priority is concerned. It's something that every single American can do, every single American has to do. It's something that can bring our people together. It is not an onerous task. It need not cause us concern about the future. It's a challenge that can be met effectively and pleasantly. And the benefits accrue to each American who acts to save energy, and it's a patriotic gesture at the same time.

So, conservation is first. We've made some progress already; we've got a long way to go. We also need to turn toward replenishable supplies of energy, energy that can be restored every year or every minute. Solar energy, energy derived from growing plants—these kinds of things can become a major element in our life in the future. And we predict, if our programs are put into effect, that by the year 2000, 20 percent of all our energy will be derived directly from solar sources.

Georgia produces enough biomass, growing crops, growing trees, to produce three times as much energy as the total that we consume in our State. And we now waste about one-third or sometimes one-half of our total timber products, because of ill-advised harvesting techniques. We're trying to move on those areas.

We need to increase the amount of oil and gas produced in our country from conventional sources. And we are giving to the oil companies tremendous increased income under my own proposals that will let them have that amount of revenue which they require.

But the other sources that we need to tap—synthetic fuels, the increased use of coal, geothermal supplies, unconventional gas, unconventional oil—not yet have we made adequate progress in these areas. But we've got now in the Congress-recently making very good progress because the people are finally aroused—an energy policy proposal that is adequate and which will restore to our country energy security.

Recently we had a vote in the Senate Energy Committee, 15 to 3, to set up an energy mobilization board, a board designed to cut through redtape and to expedite a decision on whether or not a particular energy-producing project would be built or would not be built. It's not designed to cut through State law or Federal law or to change Western water law. It's designed to cut through government redtape and delay and obfuscation and unnecessary regulations.

If a plant is well advised, if it's got a good site, and if it doesn't violate laws, it's acceptable on the basis of assessing its merits, it ought to be built. And if it's got a defect in it—the wrong place at the wrong time or the wrong concept—it ought not to be built. But the thing is, a decision ought to be made, yes or no. Now sometimes it takes 7 or 8 years just to get that exact same answer, either yes or no. But by the time the decision is made, the cost of the plant is tripled or quadrupled, the factors involved in financing the plant have changed, the people have been discouraged, and we've been deprived of a necessary element in our energy society.

We also are trying to set up an energy security corporation, not a Government agency, an extra-Government agency like the one designed to produce synthetic rubber during the Second World War or to put the communications satellite in orbit. This would be authorized to have 80 ongoing projects, at any one time, to produce synthetic fuels. The Government would just provide a reservoir of guaranteed purchases at a guaranteed price so that the private enterprise system, without interference from the Government, could go ahead and begin the production of synthetic fuels, knowing that they would have a market when their product was finally produced.

And, of course, the basis for all this is the windfall profits tax, a well-balanced tax. The House has already passed it. The Senate is now considering what form it should take. We cannot afford to see this tax decimated or aborted or changed in nature.

This comprehensive approach will give us an energy package which will reward the private enterprise system, reduce government intrusion, give the oil companies and other energy companies a chance to increase production of available United States supplies, cut down on our torrent of foreign oil coming into this country, give us jobs in our Nation, instead of overseas, and give us energy security. That's a package that we need. That's a package that we're going to have, provided I can get some good partners who have the courage and the dedication and a patriotic motivation to fight with me.

My question to you is: Will you join me as partners in getting a comprehensive energy policy for our country that will guard our Nation's security and give us a greater America, even than the one we've already got, which is already the greatest nation on Earth? Will you do that for me? [Applause]