WASHINGTON   –  “A new decade begins on the first day of 2010, and we have good reason to look back on the “aughts” and to look forward to the “teens.”  In Southern Missouri, we have the people, the ideas and the optimism to make the next ten years great.  For our country, the last ten years are full of  examples of the resilience of our nation and lessons we should heed to make our bright future possible.

Looking back, the most obvious story from the last ten years will be September 11th, 2001,  I have no doubt.  That was the fateful day when we realized the magnitude of the challenges posed to America by extremists who wage a war of international terrorism on the free people of the world.  Because of those cowardly and deadly attacks, we were moved to action – and we must continue to not only find ways to defeat terror, but also to show the world that America and our principles of freedom and democracy have the ultimate goals of peace and prosperity.

The last ten years also held some of the most prosperous and some of the toughest economic years in the history of our nation.  But we have exchanged low national unemployment for high national unemployment.  Federal deficits have absolutely exploded – from $5.6 trillion in 2000 to nearly $12.8 trillion in 2009.  These are challenges we must meet with opportunity at home.  Innovation, an unparalleled work ethic, and the smart deployment of the training, technological and economic resources available to us must be a major undertaking at all levels of government.

And the last ten years have brought into focus another task for policymakers in the new decade: the need for stable supplies of domestic energy.  Fierce competition over the world’s energy resources is unfolding on the continents of Asia and Africa, and the world’s energy-intensive economies will bid up the price as new discoveries of oil and natural gas dwindle.  Over the remainder of the next century, we must work to build a foundation for American energy independence to prevent future crises.

Sadly, when the next gas price spike hits us we will again realize that we have not made sufficient investments in the exploration, recovery and infrastructure necessary to set us apart from the rest of the world. 

Half of this solution comes from responsible recovery of the vast resources available today in American reserves from coast to coast.  The other half comes from the new fuels technologies already at work in American labs, refineries and fields.  Ethanol is the main component of America’s renewable fuels portfolio, and we must strengthen ethanol’s role in reducing our reliance on foreign fuels at the same time we work to find new alternatives to add. 

All of these problems we must solve with one eye on the next decade and the next generation.  These are big issues, each with the capacity to dominate our prosperous country and dramatically change our way of life either for the better or for the worse.  Let’s resolve ourselves to work for the better.”