Jimmy Carter

==== U.S. energy crisis ====
Moralism typified much of Carter's action.<ref>Kenneth Earl Morris, ed. ''Jimmy Carter, American Moralist'' ( University of Georgia Press, 1996).</ref> On April 18, 1977, he delivered a televised speech declaring that the current energy crisis was the "moral equivalent of war". He encouraged energy conservation and installed [[Solar power at the White House|solar water heating panels on the White House]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unity.edu/news/solar1004.htm |title=Maine college to auction off former White House solar panels |date=October 28, 2004 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122051251/http://www.unity.edu/News/solar1004.htm |archive-date=January 22, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Dave |last=Burdick |url=https://huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/white-house-solar-panels_n_160575.html |work=HuffPost |title=White House Solar Panels: What Ever Happened To Carter's Solar Thermal Water Heater? (VIDEO) |date=January 27, 2009 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |archive-date=September 4, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090904023005/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/white-house-solar-panels_n_160575.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He wore sweaters to offset turning down the heat in the White House.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/10/08/craig-shirley-jimmy-carter-white-house-energy-crisis-solar-panels-ronald-reagan/|title=Days of 'Malaise' and Jimmy Carter's Solar Panels|first1=Craig|last1=Shirley|date=October 8, 2010|access-date=August 30, 2021|work=Fox News|archive-date=November 22, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141122031809/http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/10/08/craig-shirley-jimmy-carter-white-house-energy-crisis-solar-panels-ronald-reagan/|url-status=live}}</ref> On August 4, 1977, Carter signed the [[Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977]], forming the Department of Energy, the first new cabinet position in eleven years.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Relyea |first1=Harold |title=The executive branch, creation and reorganization |year=2003 |publisher=Nova Publishers |page=29 |last2=Carr |first2=Thomas P. |isbn=978-1-59033-610-6}}</ref>

Carter boasted that the House of Representatives had "adopted almost all" of the energy proposal he had made five months earlier and called the compromise "a turning point in establishing a comprehensive energy program."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-125 |title=The President's News Conference (29 September 1977) |website=The American Presidency Project |last1=Peters |first1=Gerhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=August 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816115250/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-125 |url-status=live }}</ref> The following month, on October 13, Carter stated he believed in the Senate's ability to pass the energy reform bill and identified energy as "the most important domestic issue that we will face while I am in office."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-122 |title=The President's News Conference (13 October 2021) |website=The American Presidency Project |last1=Peters |first1=Gerhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=November 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105040157/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-122 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On January 12, 1978, during a press conference, Carter said the continued discussions about his energy reform proposal had been "long and divisive and arduous" as well as hindering to national issues that needed to be addressed with the implementation of the law.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-1008 |title=The President's News Conference (12 January 1978) |website=The American Presidency Project |last1=Peters |first1=Gerhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140632/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-1008 |url-status=live }}</ref>
In an April 11, 1978, news conference, Carter said his biggest surprise "in the nature of a disappointment" since becoming president was the difficulty Congress had in passing legislation, citing the energy reform bill in particular: "I never dreamed a year ago in April when I proposed this matter to the Congress that a year later it still would not be resolved."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-1006 |title=The President's News Conference (11 April 1978) |website=The American Presidency Project |last1=Peters |first1=Gerhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140501/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-1006 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Carter energy legislation was approved by Congress after much deliberation and modification on October 15, 1978. The measure deregulated the sale of natural gas, dropped a longstanding pricing disparity between intra- and interstate gas, and created tax credits to encourage energy conservation and the use of non-fossil fuels.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kaufman |first=Burton Ira |title=The Presidency of James Earl Carter, Jr. |date=1993 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-0572-9 |location=Lawrence, Kansas |pages=108 |oclc=26359258}}</ref>

On March 1, 1979, Carter submitted a standby gasoline rationing plan per the request of Congress.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/standby-gasoline-rationing-plan-message-the-congress-transmitting-the-plan-0 |title=Standby Gasoline Rationing Plan Message to the Congress Transmitting the Plan. (1 March 1979) |website=The American Presidency Project |last1=Peters |first1=Gerhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140613/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/standby-gasoline-rationing-plan-message-the-congress-transmitting-the-plan-0 |url-status=live }}</ref> On April 5, he delivered an address in which he stressed the urgency of energy conservation and increasing domestic production of energy sources such as coal and solar.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/energy-address-the-nation |title=Energy Address to the Nation. (5 April 1979) |website=The American Presidency Project |last1=Peters |first1=Gerhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140452/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/energy-address-the-nation |url-status=live }}</ref> During an April 30 news conference, he said it was imperative that the House commerce committee approve the standby gasoline rationing plan and called on Congress to pass the several other standby energy conservation plans he had proposed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-980 |title=The President's News Conference (30 April 1979) |website=The American Presidency Project |last1=Peters |first1=Gerhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |access-date=August 30, 2021 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212140512/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-980 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On July 15, 1979, Carter delivered a nationally televised address in which he identified what he believed to be a "[[s:The Crisis of Confidence|crisis of confidence]]" among American people,<ref name="millercenter1979">{{cite web |url=http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3402 |title="Crisis of Confidence" Speech (July 15, 1979) |publisher=Miller Center, University of Virginia |format=text and video |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090721024329/http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3402 |archive-date=July 21, 2009 |date=October 20, 2016}}</ref> under the advisement of pollster [[Pat Caddell]] who believed Americans faced a crisis in confidence from events of the 1960s and 1970s, before his presidency.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-crisis-speech/ |publisher=PBS |series=American Experience |title=Jimmy Carter |access-date=March 21, 2022 |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019101602/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-crisis-speech/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some later called this his "[[malaise]] speech",<ref name="millercenter1979" /> memorable for mixed reactions<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eoearth.org/article/Jimmy_Carter%27s__malaise_speech_ |publisher=The Encyclopedia of Earth |title=Jimmy Carter's "malaise speech" |author=Cutler Cleveland |date=January 24, 2007 |access-date=March 21, 2022 |archive-date=July 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711161737/http://www.eoearth.org/article/Jimmy_Carter%27s__malaise_speech_ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0611F8395D12728DDDA10994DF405B898BF1D3 |title=Speech Lifts Carter Rating to 37%; Public Agrees on Confidence Crisis; Responsive Chord Struck |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 18, 1979 |access-date=August 30, 2021 |author=Adam Clymer |author-link=Adam Clymer |page=A1 |archive-date=May 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517074931/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0611F8395D12728DDDA10994DF405B898BF1D3 |url-status=live }}</ref> and his use of rhetoric.<ref>{{cite web |title=American Experience |publisher=[[PBS]] |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-crisis-speech/ |access-date=October 22, 2013 |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019101602/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-crisis-speech/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The speech's negative reception centered on a view that he did not emphasize his own efforts to address the energy crisis and seemed too reliant on Americans.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weintraub |first=Walter |title=Political Psychology 7: Profiles of American Presidents as Revealed in Their Public Statements: The Presidential News Conferences of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan |year=1986 |publisher=International Society of Political Psychology |pages=285–295}}</ref>