President Obama Sees PHEVs at Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center
March 20, 2009
Watch AP's 1:45 excerpt from his speech. Our transcript is just below.
"Now yesterday I was in Costa Mesa, talking about this economic downturn that we're in. It's downturn that's hitting this state as much as it's hitting any state in the union. One out of ten Californians are out of work and actively looking for jobs. The foreclosure crisis has had a devastating impact on Southern California in particular. But Californians aren't just bearing the brunt of this crisis. You are doing what needs to be done to overcome it. This workshop is a perfect example of that. Day by day, test by test, trial by painstaking trial, the scientists, the engineers, the workers at this site, are developing the ideas and innovations that our future depend on. It's your ingenuity that will help create the new jobs and new industries of tomorrow. I know it's not easy. There are days, I am sure, when progress seems fleeting, and days when you feel like you're making no progress at all. That's how it feels in the White House sometimes, too. (Laughter). But often our greatest discoveries are born not in a flash of brilliance, but in the crucible of a deliberate effort over time. And often they take something more than imagination and dedication alone, often they take a commitment and investment from government. That's how we sent a man to the moon. That's how we were able to launch a World Wide Web. And it's how we'll help to build the clean energy economy that's the key to our competitiveness in the 21st century. We'll do this because we know -- as Levon just said -- that the nation that leads on energy will be the nation that leads the world in the twenty-first century."
