Barack Obama talks carbon, environment in Hawaii

Returning to a theme that helped to propel him to victory in the 2008 election, President Barack Obama told supporters gathered at a November 14, 2011 campaign event in Ko Olina, Hawaii that “we’ve already started to see what change looks like.”

In his remarks, Obama pointed to new fuel efficiency standards as one example of how his administration is pursuing “change” when it comes to the environment and climate change:

Change is the decision we made -- not a popular one at the time -- to save the auto industry from collapse.  There were a lot of folks who said, let Detroit go bankrupt.  But we decided to not only save thousands of jobs, get hundreds of local businesses thriving again, but we are now seeing fuel-efficient cars rolling off the assembly lines, stamped with three proud words:  Made in America.  And those are going to be exported all around the world.  That's because of you.  (Applause.)  Because of the change that you brought.

Change is the decision we made to stop waiting for Congress to do something about our oil addiction and finally raise our fuel-efficiency standards on our cars and on our trucks.  And now, by the next decade, we'll be driving cars that get 56 miles per gallon.  And that means that we are not only saving consumers money, but we're also taking carbon out of the atmosphere, and it is going to make a huge difference in terms of our environment, and that's because of you and the campaign that you helped run in 2008.