UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 20, Page 1
February 18, 1993
Jimmy Carter honored for environmental contributions

     Jimmy Carter Tuesday night accepted with delight the University's
first Karl W. Boer Solar Energy Medal of Merit from President David P.
Roselle before some 3,500 persons who had braved inclement weather to watch
the presentation and hear the former president talk on the environment and
solar energy.
     The medal, which carries with it a $40,000 cash prize, is named for
the solar energy pioneer, Karl W. Boer., founder of the University's
Institute of Energy Conversion.
     The Boer award honors an individual who has made significant
pioneering contributions to the promotion of solar energy as an alternate
source of energy through research, development or economic enterprise.
     The presentation capped a day-long solar energy symposium, which
attracted national and international scholars, political leaders and
industry representatives to the Newark campus.
     Former Delaware Gov. Russell W. Peterson, a friend of Carter's,
introduced him as "a man for all seasons, one of the world's greatest
assets."
     Peterson listed Carter's numerous contributions to energy conservation
and solar energy and praised the former president's vision, citing his work
to establish long-term global planning, an effort that produced The Global
2,000 Report to the President. Peterson characterized the report as "one of
the most important contributions of any government to the future quality of
life on our planet."
     In his talk, Carter offered suggestions for the future of energy and
spoke about the work of the Carter Center, calling the latter "the
commitment of my life. It's not directly related to solar energy, but it is
related to things that bind people together."
     Carter said the non-partisan center does not duplicate what others are
doing and does not undertake a project unless it has an "action component."
Examples of Carter Center projects are the promotion of negotiations among
warring nations world-wide and projects dealing with world-wide hunger and
health issues.
     On the subject of energy, Carter detailed highlights from his
administration, including attempts to make automobile manufacturers produce
more energy-efficient cars, the restructuring of rates at electric power
companies, energy-saving incentives for low-income families and the
preservation of wilderness areas in Alaska.
     "When I became president, we had an average automobile efficiency of
only 12 miles per gallon. We set into law a requirement that, before the
end of the 1980s, the average fleet efficiency would be 28 miles per
gallon. My successors were not as enthusiastic about it; restraints on
automobile manufacturers were abandoned; and the United States now has
average automobile efficiency of only about 20 miles per gallon," he said,
comparing it to Japan's average fleet efficiently of 31 miles per gallon.
     "If we would just impose restraints, it would dramatically reduce the
total consumption of energy in the world," he said.
     "As we don't conserve energy or shift to renewable energy sources like
solar energy, we become politically and, I think, even militarily,
vulnerable to blackmail or the threat of uncontrollable wars in the
oil-supplying areas.
     "You know," Carter said, "we've forgotten about conservation; we've
forgotten about electric rates; we've forgotten about requiring American
automobiles to be efficient; we've forgotten about the commitment of a
family to utilize the sun's power just to save our own family a lot of
money."
     For the future, Carter said, "we need to harness the combined efforts
of the advanced countries on Earth," suggesting:

       * An international consortium of dynamic and aggressive scientists,
         academics and industrialists to promote the use of solar energy
         and to decrease the cost per unit;
       * That some sort of modification of American law is needed, to give
         tax breaks or low-interest loans for anybody who wants to develop
         the production of solar energy;
       * That long-range planning is essential. "Although we abandoned the
         Global 2,000 Report in this country, Japan and Germany have used
         it to project l0 or 20 years in the future, on a continuing
         basis, what is going to be the supply of natural resources, where
         are their people going to be living, what are going the
         afflictions we're going to have to face, how do we address
         environmental issues. Our country has no such similar projection
         looking toward the future. It's a tragedy," Carter said.

     "The president of the United States and his wonderful vice president,
who is an environmentalist of a notable degree, should take this on as a
major subject ," Carter said. "If the president makes a few major addresses
on solar power or energy conservation or environmental issues (maybe based
on Al Gore's book), this would stimulate interest all over the world. If
there is silence from the White House, the silence is permeating."
     Carter also urged "simplification of the issue." The average
American-"certainly peanut farmers," he said, "cannot understand what's
going on. How much oil do we have left? Who knows? I got the most advanced
books I could get to try to see how much energy we have left in just oil
supplies alone. Every book had a different way to measure energy."
     The former president suggested measuring oil reserves in cubic miles.
     "I can imagine a cubic mile. Plains, where I live, is one square mile,
and I can imagine an airplane flying over at a 5,000-foot altitude. That
creates a box you could fill up with oil. That's something that's
comprehensible.
     Carter urged "the scientists and scholars who deal with this and the
people who write speeches for President Clinton need to put it in terms
that the average man can understand."
     In concluding his view on the future of energy, Carter said, "I don't
think it's a hopeless case, but if we don't do our share individually and
use our influence where we can, then we're all going to face a world in the
year 2000 and 2010 and 2020 where the quality of life is going to decrease,
not just for people in Bangledesh and Somalia and Zambia and Haiti, but
also in the United States of America. And we don't want to see that.
     "I think solar power is one of the keys to a bright future for us
all," Carter said.
     His speech was followed by a brief question-and-answer period. At its
close, he was given a standing  ovation.
                                        -Beth Thomas