Dear Friends,

Joseph A. Stanislaw has spent his career concerned about the future of
energy production and consumption. The J.A. Stanislaw Group specializes in
strategic thinking and investment in energy and technology, advising
industry and governments as they set energy policy.

Deeply influenced by the writings of E. F. Schumacher, Mr. Stanislaw has
authored several papers on alternative energy technologies and their
promise.

He writes of his latest innovative essay: "With the historic election of
Barack Obama to President, our nation enjoys new opportunities to confront
monumental challenges--especially the convergence of energy, climate change,
and security. This is the speech I would like to see President Obama
deliver when he takes office in January 2009."

We have excerpted sections of it below. The full essay is at
www.smallisbeautiful.org/publications/stanislaw_08.html

Best wishes,
Staff of the E. F. Schumacher Society
140 Jug End Road
Great Barrington, MA 01230 USA
www.smallisbeautiful.org

* * * * * * * * * *
TOGETHER WE WILL EMPOWER AMERICA IN THE 21st CENTURY

My fellow Americans, this is my first address to you as your President. It
is also one of the most important speeches I will ever make.

Our nation confronts many challenges. . . . one challenge transcends them
all.

It is--at once--our most critical economic, national security, foreign
policy, and environmental challenge. It lies at the heart of how we educate
our children and operate our government. It is the key to unlocking millions
of jobs, and to preserving and developing our local communities. And it is
our way out of this economic crisis, the most severe crisis our nation has
faced since the Great Depression.

This issue is energy--how we produce it and how we consume it.

The threats we face today that are linked to energy have multiplied. Not
only are our economic security and well-being at risk, but so too is our
fundamental security. Our reliance on foreign oil threatens our
independence. Our exposure to climate change poses an unacceptable risk to
our communities, our environment, and our culture.

It is this convergence of economics, climate change, and security that
makes energy the most important issue of our time.

In leading our country into a new energy era, I have on my side one all-
powerful weapon--a weapon none of my predecessors ever fully enlisted in
their efforts: you, the American people. Each and every American, beginning
today, has the power to drive our country to greater energy independence.
Each and every American can contribute in a meaningful way to creating the
green economy of the 21st century and to combat climate change.

I will be accountable to you. And I expect you to be accountable to me and
to each other. This is what democracy means.

We will appeal to American common sense by expediting the era of
cutting-edge clean vehicles, energy efficient homes, and smart
appliances--all of which will save you money and improve your lives.

We will build on the American ethic of fairness by allowing competing
technologies to prove themselves on their true merits -- making our markets
reflect and capture the true cost of energy . . .

We will inspire and support America's spirit of innovation and
entrepreneurship by investing in research and providing powerful incentives
to bring new technologies into the marketplace.

We will lead the way by making energy a force for international unity, not
division, and by seriously addressing climate change.

And we will honor America's forward-looking spirit by investing in
education, from cradle to grave, so that we change how Americans of all ages
view our energy challenges and the related environmental issues.

Nor will we suddenly turn our backs on oil and gas. No matter how fast the
progress on alternatives, the world will be primarily reliant on fossil
fuels for at least two generations--the bridge to tomorrow's new energy
future depends on this. . . . There is no quick fix. But a rising tide of
alternative sources of energy--combined with new demand patterns and new
demand efficiencies--will mitigate the eventual, gradual drop-off in
hydrocarbon production that should begin in the next quarter-century. This
will create a bridge to the new, cleaner energy era ahead and will create a
wave of new jobs--a new industrial revolution.

Allow me to outline five areas of action, including specific targets, on
which my administration will begin working immediately.

The first, and most vital goal, is education. There is only so much that
presidential leadership alone can accomplish. For this great American
project to succeed, we must make knowledge of energy part of our national
DNA. This can only be done through education.

So tomorrow, I will convene a blue-ribbon commission of high school and
college educators, business and labor leaders, economists, and technology
experts to look at every aspect of our education, training, and public
awareness systems. . . .Their first goal will be to identify the skills our
schools must teach so that we develop a world-class workforce that can usher
in a new era of energy and environmental progress – these include basic
skills needed from electricians, to welders, to plumbers, to more advanced
engineering skills.

But education requires not only learning in the classroom, but learning in
the real world. So today I am announcing the massive expansion of
AmeriCorps. Every graduating high school senior will be encouraged to
undertake one year of national service. The top priority will go to projects
that will rebuild our communities so that they become energy efficient and
environmentally aware.

Our second goal is one that also enlists every single American--energy
efficiency.

The greatest proven reserves of fossil fuels that we have are not in Saudi
Arabia or the Gulf of Mexico--they are in your cars' gas tanks, in your
homes' oil heaters, in the electricity plant down the road. A barrel of oil
saved is a barrel found. Everything we do today, we could be doing more
efficiently as soon as tomorrow--consuming less energy by using technologies
that are already available to us.

By the end of my first term in office, our goal is to put in place energy
efficiency programs and initiatives to promote alternative transportation
technologies that will eliminate the need for oil imports by 2025.

Our progress towards energy efficiency, however, will only be possible if we
continue to develop smart technologies and alternative forms of energy. For
this to happen, we need markets that are honest and fair--markets that
reflect the true price of energy. This will be my administration's third
goal.

Simply put, when you buy a gallon of gas today, or fill your boiler, the
price of these fossil fuels does not reflect their true costs to our
society. Over the course of my first term, therefore, I will confer with the
energy industry about adopting a carbon tax or a carbon trading system that
creates a cost for carbon to make the economics of our energy systems
reflect the honest cost of fossil fuels. The revenues we raise from such a
tax or trading system would be invested in helping to finance the upfront
costs of energy efficiency technologies for Americans, as well as in the
research we need to develop clean and alternative technologies.

This is my fourth goal: to make America the world leader in every promising
clean and alternative energy technology. There is no silver bullet to
achieve our energy targets--we need every bullet.

As importantly, my government will renew our country's aging infrastructure,
laying the foundations for the green economy of the 21st century. A smart
energy grid will be one of our signature projects. Specifically, within two
months from today, we will begin work on demonstration projects for a smart
grid system in two to three locations in America, so we can prove the worth
of these technologies. We will then reward states that allow for the rapid
implementation of smart grids and we will develop programs to speed the
construction of such grids across the country.

If we are willing to spend $1 trillion to bail out banks, surely we can
invest an equal amount to build the basis of our future prosperity. In doing
so, government will lead by example. We will use America's might in the
market to set the highest standards for energy technology. Those companies
that lead the way will be rewarded in the marketplace through the
government's purchasing power.

Your government will construct buildings that meet green LEED standards.
Your government will retrofit its buildings to the highest "green"
standards. Your government will purchase automobiles and electronics that
rate in the top 10 percent of energy efficiency. By doing so, we will create
economies of scale for these technologies that will bring down prices for
all Americans. And your government will hire employees who have received
certification in energy efficiency.

I expect that city and state governments, many of which have been
visionaries in this field, will follow the federal government's lead. In
fact, we will help them do so by offering federal guarantees for municipal
bonds raised for this purpose. We also will require any entity drawing on
federal funds to meet federal energy standards.

In everything we do, in fact, we will be guided by a profound commitment to
our local communities--it is the prism through which we will develop all of
our energy policies.

. . . in cooperation with today's top technology companies, we will launch a
major web portal to allow local communities nationwide and worldwide to
share their best ideas and practices for transforming themselves into green
economic leaders.

Government also will use the current crisis in our economy to transform
local communities. As we rebuild our financial system, we will ensure that
it functions to promote housing and urban transport improvements that are
responsive to our energy goals. This includes, among other measures,
providing mortgages with lower rates for more energy efficient homes.

And when the smoke clears--and the smoke will literally clear--we will have
created millions of new jobs--jobs that pay well and stay put for all those
students educated by the "green economy" schools we will have created. Jobs
that revitalize local communities. Jobs that make America a global
industrial leader once again. Jobs that cannot and will not be exported.

But if there is one thing we have learned during the economic and foreign
policy crises of the past decade, it is that we cannot go it alone. America
is not an island.

On the energy issues that matter most, we need to reach out and develop deep
cooperation with our allies and trading partners. This is my fifth goal.

Our ultimate destination is energy independence. But, the path to that
ultimate destination is mutual interdependence. We will achieve this by
creating transparency in energy markets, by investing jointly with our
allies in new and renewable technologies, by leading negotiations for a
successor treaty to the Kyoto protocol, and by creating a G20 for energy
security.

To oversee all aspects of this greatest challenge of our generation, I am
creating today a National Energy Council, which will be located in the White
House.

Their core mission will be to create the vision, the direction, and the
conditions to drive us to this new energy future.

We should not expect short-term miracles from this plan. Over the next four
years, we must do the hard work of defining and putting in place a 50-year
vision for the wholesale transformation of our society to one that has a
sensible long-term energy policy – and is also clean and green. If we do
this, our energy costs and our foreign dependency will drop dramatically
each and every decade. This is the promise I make to you and your children
and your grandchildren.

* * * * * * * * * *
Used with permission of Joseph A Stanislaw and
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (www.deloitte.com).