Proclamation 7101

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

In today's robust and growing economy, the United States faces major challenges in meeting the ever-increasing demand for transportation goods and services while minimizing the adverse impact on our energy resources, environment, and future prosperity.

Today's American transportation system remains enormously dependent on oil. Highway transportation alone accounts for more than half of our Nation's oil demand, and the number of vehicles and miles driven on our roads is steadily increasing. Transportation is the second largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and will likely be the most significant contributor by the year 2000.

Fortunately, vehicles that are powered by alternatives to conventional gasoline and diesel fuels are already on the market, and domestically produced, renewable alternative fuels are readily available to American consumers. These alternative fuels-such as ethanol, methanol, natural gas, propane, electricity, and biodiesel-can make significant contributions to our energy security and environmental quality. By increasing the use of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), we can reduce our demand for imported oil, create new products, jobs, and businesses, and improve air quality by dramatically reducing carbon dioxide emissions as well as the hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter that are such major contributors to urban air pollution.

More than 350,000 AFVs are already on the road in the 60 communities participating in the Department of Energy's Clean Cities Program. This program is fostering the development of AFV markets in a network of cities across the country through partnerships among fuel suppliers, vehicle fleet operators, Federal, State, and local governments, and private sector organizations. Through the efforts of program participants, we are moving closer to our goal of building a transportation system for our Nation that meets the energy, economic, and environmental needs of Americans today and of generations yet to come.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 31 through June 6, 1998, as National Alternative Fuels Week. I call upon all Americans to observe this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-second.

William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., June 2, 1998]