Our final challenge is the most important:  to pass a national security budget that keeps our military the best trained and best equipped in the world, with heightened readiness and 21st Century weapons; raises salaries for our service men and women; protects our veterans; fully funds the diplomacy that keeps our soldiers out of war; and makes good on our commitment to pay our un dues and arrears.  I ask you to pass this budget and I thank you for the extraordinary support you have given—­Republicans and Democrats alike—­to our men and women in uniform.  I especially want to thank Secretary Cohen for symbolizing our bipartisan commitment to our national security—­and Janet Cohen, I thank you for tirelessly traveling the world to show our support for the troops.

If we meet all these challenges, America can lead the world toward peace and freedom in an era of globalization.

Responsibility, Opportunity, and the Environment

I am grateful for the opportunities the Vice President and I have had to work hard to protect the environment and finally to put to rest the notion that you can’t expand the economy while protecting the environment.  As our economy has grown, we have rid more than 500 neighborhoods of toxic waste and ensured cleaner air and water for millions of families.  In the past three months alone, we have acted to preserve more than 40 million acres of roadless lands in our National Forests and created three new National Monuments.

But as our communities grow, our commitment to conservation must grow as well.  Tonight, I propose creating a permanent conservation fund to restore wildlife, protect coastlines, and save natural treasures from California redwoods to the Everglades.  This Lands Legacy endowment represents by far the most enduring investment in land preservation ever proposed.

Last year, the Vice President launched a new effort to help make communities more livable—­so children will grow up next to parks, not parking lots, and parents can be home with their children instead of stuck in traffic.  Tonight, we propose new funding for advanced transit systems—­ for saving precious open spaces—­for helping major cities around the Great Lakes protect their waterways and enhance their quality of life.

The greatest environmental challenge of the new century is global warming.  Scientists tell us that the 1990s were the hottest decade of the entire millennium.  If we fail to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, deadly heat waves and droughts will become more frequent, coastal areas will be flooded, economies disrupted.

Many people in the United States and around the world still believe we can’t cut greenhouse gas pollution without slowing economic growth.  In the Industrial Age that may have been true.  In the digital economy, it isn’t.  New technologies make it possible to cut harmful emissions and provide even more growth.  For example, just last week, automakers unveiled cars that get 70 to 80 miles a gallon—­the fruits of a unique research partnership between government and industry.  Before you know it, efficient production of biofuels will give us the equivalent of hundreds of miles from a gallon of gas.