American automakers are undergoing some painful adjustments, they are also retooling and reimagining themselves into an industry that can compete and win — and millions of jobs depend on it.
So this is the critical work you’re doing. But it’s just one component of what must be a comprehensive energy plan. And that’s why we’re making an $11 billion investment in upgrading our power grid, so that it can carry renewable energy from the far-flung places that harness or produce it to the cities that use it. That’s why we’ll create jobs retrofitting millions of homes and cutting energy use in federal buildings by one quarter, saving the American taxpayer $1.5 billion each year.
These are challenging times, but we know we can do this. It won’t come without a cost, it won’t be easy. We’ve got 240 million cars already on the road. We’ve got to upgrade the world’s largest energy grid while it’s already in use. And other countries aren’t standing around and waiting for us; they’re forging ahead with their own bold energy plans.
But this is the thing we have to remember: We’ve faced tough challenges before. At our best, we have never relied on hope and chance alone. Time and time again, we’ve tapped those great American resources: industriousness and ingenuity. That, after all, is what California is all about. This is a state that has always drawn people who’ve had their eyes set on the horizon; who’ve always dreamed of a future that others thought beyond reach. That’s the spirit that you are reclaiming here at the Electric Vehicle Test Center. That’s the spirit we need to reclaim all across the country.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. (Applause.)
(Source: White House)