US Presidency
1975

Good evening. Last January 15, I went before your Senators and Representatives in Congress with a comprehensive plan to make our country independent of foreign sources of energy by 1985. Such a program was long overdue. We have become increasingly at the mercy of others for the fuel on which our entire economy runs. Here are the facts and figures that will not go away. The United States is dependent on foreign sources for about 37 percent of its present petroleum needs. In ten years, if we do nothing, we will be importing more than half our oil at prices fixed by others, if they choose to sell to us at all. In two and a-half years, we will be twice as vulnerable to a foreign oil embargo as we were two winters ago. We are now paying out $ 25 billion a year for foreign oil. Five years ago we paid out only $ 3 billion annually. Five years from now, if we do nothing, who knows how many more billions will be flowing out of the United States.