Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.

Archimedes

There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.

Albert Einstein, 1932

We will ensure that our people and our economy are never again held hostage by the whim of any country or cartel.

Ronald Reagan, 1982

“Sleep” features that power down home office equipment and other electronic devices that are turned on but not in use can save households up to $70 annually.

Alliance to Save Energy, 2005

Electric power is everywhere present in unlimited quantities and can drive the world’s machinery without the need of coal, oil, gas, or any other of the common fuels.

Nicola Tesla

The technical and implementation options — the everyday work of energy efficiency practitioners — are mostly unknown, however, to those econometricians who lie awake nights worrying about whether what works in practice can possibly work in theory.

Amery Lovins

American households typically spend more than $200 annually on air conditioning. Households in some regions of the South can easily spend twice that much.

Alliance to Save Energy, 2005

I am recommending a plan to make us invulnerable to cutoffs of foreign oil. It will require sacrifices, but it–and this is most important–it will work…A massive program must be initiated to increase energy supply to cut demand, and provide new standby emergency programs to achieve the independence we want by 1985…Increasing energy supplies is not enough. We must take additional steps to cut long-term consumption…I have a very deep belief in America’s capabilities.

Gerald Ford, 1975

… I do not think there is the slightest chance of its [electricity] competing, in a general way, with gas. There are defects about the electric light which, unless some essential changes take place, must entirely prevent its application to ordinary lighting purposes.

Select Committee on Lighting by Electricity, British House of Commons, 1879

The automobile is our worst polluter of the air. Adequate control requires further advances in engine design and fuel composition. We shall intensify our research, set increasingly strict standards, and strengthen enforcement procedures — and we shall do it now.

We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor’s yard.

Richard Nixon, 1970