Text 2169, 762 rader
Skriven 2006-02-21 23:39:10 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060221) for Tue, 2006 Feb 21
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President Participates in Energy Conservation _
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 21, 2006

President Participates in Energy Conservation _
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Golden, Colorado


˙˙˙˙˙Advanced Energy Initiative
˙˙˙˙˙State of the Union: The Advanced Energy Initiative
˙˙˙˙˙In Focus: Energy

9:19 A.M. MST

THE PRESIDENT: Please be seated. Thank you. Thank you all. Thanks for
having me. I'm honored to be at the National Renewable Energy Lab -- which
will be henceforth called NREL. (Laughter.) We -- I have come today to
discuss unbelievable opportunities for our country to achieve a great
national goal, and that is to end our addiction on oil.

I know it sounds odd for a Texan to say that. (Laughter.) But I have spent
a lot of time worrying about the national security implications of being
addicted to oil, particularly from parts of the world where people may not
agree with our policy or our way of life, and the economic security
implications of being hooked on oil, particularly since the demand for oil
is rising faster than the supply of oil. And any time that happens it
creates the conditions for what could be price disruption and price spikes
at home are like hidden taxes on the working people of our country.

And so we're here to discuss ways to achieve this really important national
goal. And there's no better place to come than NREL, and I want to thank
you all for hosting me. I appreciate -- (applause.) I really appreciate the
scientists and dreamers and, more importantly, doers who work here to help
achieve this important goal.

I recognize that there has been some interesting -- let me say -- mixed
signals when it comes to funding. The issue, of course, is whether or not
good intentions are met with actual dollars spent. Part of the issue we
face, unfortunately, is that there are sometimes decisions made, but as a
result of the appropriations process, the money may not end up where it was
supposed to have gone. I was talking to Dan about our mutual desire to
clear up any discrepancies in funding, and I think we've cleaned up those
discrepancies. My message to those who work here is we want you to know how
important your work is; we appreciate what you're doing; and we expect you
to keep going it and we want to help you keep doing it. (Applause.)

I want to thank Dan. He's going to be saying some stuff here in a minute,
so we're not going to -- I'm just going to thank him. I want to thank your
staff for hosting us. It's a pain to host the President. (Laughter.)
Anyway, you've done a fine job. I want to thank the Governor of the state
of Colorado, Bill Owens, for joining us. (Applause.) Your United States
Senator Ken Salazar -- thanks for coming, Ken, I appreciate it. (Applause.)
The Congressman from this district, Bob Beauprez -- I appreciate you being
here. (Applause.) The Congressman from the adjoining district, Mark Udall
-- Mark, there you go. Thanks for coming. (Applause.)

We got all kinds of people -- we got the Mayor -- appreciate you coming,
Mayor Baroch. Thanks for coming, Mayor. Just fill the potholes. (Laughter.)
You got a great city -- thanks for having us. I appreciate the Statehouse
folks -- Senator Andy McElhany and Joe Stengel from this district. I think
that's right. Appreciate you coming. (Applause.) Thank you, Andy. Good to
see you. I want to thank the directors -- thank everybody. (Laughter.)

So the challenge is what do we do to achieve objectives. In other words, we
set goals -- so what do we need to do? What do we need to do as a nation to
meet the goal? How can we fulfill our responsibilities that really say we
understand the problems we face? So here's what we need to do.

First, we need to make sure we're the leader of technology in the world. I
don't mean just relative to previous times in American history. I think
this country needs to lead the world and continue to lead the world. And so
how do you do that? One, first, there's a federal commitment to spending
research dollars. In my State of the Union, I called on Congress to double
the research in basic sciences at the federal level. This will help places
like NREL. It will continue this grand tradition of the federal government
working with the private sector to spend valuable research money in order
to make sure we develop technologies that keep us as a leader.

In order for us to achieve this national goal of becoming less dependent on
foreign sources of oil, we've got to spend money, and the best place to do
that is through research labs such as NREL. Now, we also got to recognize
that two-thirds of the money spent on research in the United States comes
from the private sector. So it's one thing for the federal government to
make a commitment of doubling the funding over a 10-year period, but we've
got to recognize that most of the money is done through corporate America,
through the private sector.

And one thing that seems like a smart thing to do for me is to make the tax
rules clear. The research and development tax credit expires on an annual
basis. It doesn't make any sense to say to corporate America or the private
sector, plan for the long run, but we're not going to tell you whether or
not the tax code is going to be the same from year to year. And so, in
order to encourage that two-thirds of the investment in the private sector
-- necessary to help us achieve national goals and objectives, one of which
is to stay on the leading edge of innovation -- is to have the research and
development tax credit a permanent part of our tax code.

Now, in order to get us less addicted to oil, we got to figure out where we
use oil, and that's pretty easy when you think about it. We use a lot of
oil for our transportation needs. And so if we can change the way we drive
our cars and our trucks, we can change our addition to oil. And
laboratories such as this are doing unbelievably interesting work on
helping us change the way we drive our automobiles. And you're going to
hear some interesting discussion with people on the front lines of these
technological changes.

I just want to tell the American people three ways that we can change the
way we drive our automobiles. One is through the use of hybrid vehicles.
And Congress wisely increased the tax credit available to those who
purchase hybrid vehicles. In other words, we're trying to increase demand
for hybrid vehicles. You can get up to a $3,400 tax credit now if you buy a
hybrid vehicle. Hybrid vehicles are vehicles that use a gasoline engine to
help charge a battery, and when the battery is charged, the battery kicks
in, and if the battery gets low, the gasoline engine kicks back in to
charge the battery. It's a hybrid -- in other words, two sources of power
for the engine.

The new technological breakthrough, however, is going to be when we develop
batteries that are able to enable an automobile to drive, say, the first 40
miles on electricity alone. Those are what we call plug-in hybrid vehicles.
And yesterday I was at Johnson Controls, which is one of the private sector
companies that are developing the new technologies to enable cars to be
able to not need the gasoline engine to charge the battery. Now, that saves
a lot of -- you can begin to think about how this technology is going to
enable us to save on gasoline use, which makes us less dependent on crude
oil, since crude oil is the feed stock for gasoline.

The ideas is to have an automobile, say, that can drive 40 miles on the
battery, as I mentioned. But if you're living in a big city, that's
probably all you're going to need for that day's driving. And then you can
get home and plug your car right into the outlet in your house. This is
coming. I mean, we're close to this. It's going to require more research
dollars. The budget I submitted to the Congress does have money in it for
this type of research for new types of batteries. But I want the people to
know we're close. The hybrid vehicles you're buying today are an important
part of making sure you save money when it comes to driving. But they're
going to change with the right research and development. Technology will
make it so that the hybrid vehicles are even better in getting us less
addicted on oil, and making it good for the consumer's pocketbook.

Secondly, there is a fantastic technology brewing -- I say brewing, it's
kind of a catch on words here -- (laughter) -- called ethanol. I mean, it's
-- there's a lot of folks in the Midwest driving -- using what's called E85
gasoline. It means 85 percent of the fuel they're putting in their car is
derived from corn. This is exciting news for those of us worried about
addiction to oil. You grow a lot of corn, you're less dependent on foreign
sources of energy. Using corn for fuel helps our farmers and helps our
foreign policy at the same time. It's a good deal.

The problem is we need more sources of ethanol. We need more -- to use
different products than just corn. Got to save some corn to eat, of course.
(Laughter.) Corn flakes without corn is kind of -- (laughter.) And so one
of the interesting things happening in this laboratory and around the
country is what's called the development of cellulostic ethanol. That's a
fancy word for using switch grass, corn -- wood products, stuff that you
generally allow to decompose, to become a source of energy.

And as our fellow citizens begin to think to whether or not it makes sense
to spend research, imagine -- dollars on this technology, imagine people in
the desert being able to grow switch grasses that they can then convert
into energy for ethanol for the cars that they're driving there in Arizona.
All of a sudden the whole equation about energy production begins to shift
dramatically. And we're going to hear a lot about cellulostic ethanol.

Finally, hydrogen fuel cells. It's not a short-term solution, or an
intermediate-term solution, but it's definitely a long-term solution. It
will help us achieve grand objectives, less dependence on oil, and the
production of automobiles that have zero emissions that could harm our air.
And we'll talk a lot about hydrogen fuel cells.

Finally, I do want to talk about technologies that will enable us to change
the way we power our homes and businesses, which is the second part of the
strategy, the Advanced Energy Initiative strategy.

First of all, there's huge pressure on natural gas -- people in Colorado
know what I'm talking about. We've been using a lot of natural gas for the
generation of electricity. And we got to change that. Natural gas is
important for manufacturing, it's important for fertilizers. But to use it
for electricity is causing enormous pressure, because we're not getting
enough natural gas produced.

One way to alleve [sic] the pressure on price is to expand the use of
liquified natural gas through new terminals. And I want to thank the
Congress for passing new siting rights in the energy bill that will enable
us to have more terminals for us to be able to receive liquified natural
gas from parts of the world that can produce it cheaply -- liquified, and
then ship it to the United States.

But the other way to take the price off of gas is to better use coal,
nuclear power, solar and wind energy. Now, when you hear people say coal,
it causes people to shudder, because coal -- it's hard to burn it. But we
have got -- we're spending about $2 billion over a 10-year period to
develop clean coal technologies. If technology can help the way we live,
technology can certainly help change the way we utilize coal. And it's
important that we spend money on new technologies so we can burn coal
cleanly, because we got 250 years worth of coal reserves.

One way to take the pressure off natural gas is to use coal more
efficiently. We believe, by 2015 we'll have developed the first zero
emission coal-fire electricity plant. We're making progress. We're spending
money, research is good. The American taxpayers have got to know that by
spending money on this vital research, that we're going to be able to use
our abundant sources of coal in an environmentally friendly way, and help
with your electricity bills.

Secondly, we've got to use nuclear power more effectively and more
efficiently. We haven't built a plant since the 1970s. You're seeing now,
France has built a lot of plants since the 1970s. They get about 85 percent
of their electricity from nuclear power. And technology has changed
dramatically, and I believe we can build plants in a safe way and, at the
same time, generate cost-effective electricity that does not -- that the
process of which won't pollute.

And so we've begun to, in the energy bill, begun to provide incentives for
the nuclear power industry to start siting plants. It just doesn't make any
sense to me that we don't use this technology if we're interested in
becoming less dependent on foreign sources of energy and we want to protect
our environment.

And finally, solar and wind technologies. We are -- we're also going to
talk about that. NREL is doing a lot of important work on solar and wind
technology. The vision for solar is one day each home becomes a little
power unit unto itself, that photovoltaic processes will enable you to
become a little power generator, and that if you generate more power than
you use, you can feed it back into the grid.

I was, yesterday, in Michigan, and went to United Solar. And they've got
some fantastic technologies. Dan was quick to remind me, others have
fantastic technologies, as well. (Laughter.) I just hadn't seen them
firsthand. But the American people need to know, with additional research
dollars, which we're proposing to Congress, we're close to some important
breakthroughs -- to be able to use this technology to help folks -- to help
folks power their homes by the sun.

And finally, wind. We don't have a lot of turbines in Washington, but
there's a lot of wind there, I can assure you of that. (Laughter.) But
there are parts of the country where there are turbines. They say to me
that there's about six percent of the country that's perfectly suited for
wind energy, and that if the technology is developed further, that it's
possible we could generate up to 20 percent of our electricity needs
through wind and turbine.

What I'm talking about is a comprehensive strategy. In other words, we're
not relying upon one aspect of renewable energy to help this country become
less dependent. We're talking about a variety of fronts. And we're willing
to work with both the public sector and private sector to make sure that we
achieve breakthroughs. And I'm fired up about it and so should the American
people be. I mean, we're close to changing the way we live in an incredibly
positive way. And, therefore, I want to thank the folks at NREL for being a
part of this exciting movement. It's got to be pretty interesting to be one
of these guys working on how to make switch grass go to fuel. I mean, it's
got to make you feel good about your work, because you're doing the country
a great service.

And so, with that in mind, I've asked Dan Arvizu to join us. He's the
Director of NREL. That means he's -- that means you're the boss?
(Laughter.)

MR. ARVIZU: Only part of the time.

THE PRESIDENT: Only part of the time.

MR. ARVIZU: Until I get home. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Why don't you tell the folks -- he's a smart man.
(Laughter.) Why don't you tell the folks what you do here so people can
understand.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: I think what he's saying is one of these days, we're going
to take wood chips -- (laughter) -- put them through the factory, and it's
going to be fuel you can put in your car. Is that right?

DR. ARVIZU: That's absolutely true. (Laughter and applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: That's the difference between the PhD and a C student.
(Laughter.)

DR. ARVIZU: I didn't want to say that.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, right. (Laughter.) Anyway, keep going. (Laughter.)

DR. ARVIZU: One of the other areas that we're tremendously excited by is
photovoltaics. You mentioned the photovoltaics.

THE PRESIDENT: Explain what photovoltaics are. I threw it out there as kind
of -- tell people what it means.

DR. ARVIZU: Photovoltaics is actually the direct conversion of sunlight to
electricity through semiconductor material, and it's essentially what we
use in computers for chips that power those things. And to a large degree,
it's a technology that's been around a long time, but it has become much
closer to commercialization. Now, in high-value markets it is commercial
today.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: See, what's changed is the global supply for fossil fuels is
outstripping the -- the global demand is outstripping the global supply,
and so you're seeing a price of the feedstock of normal energy going up,
and technology driving the price of alternatives down. And that's why this
is a really interesting moment that we're going to see. It has changed a
lot of thinking. The price of natural gas and the price of crude oil has
absolutely made these competitive alternative sources of energy real. And
the question is, do we have the technological breakthroughs to make it such
that it can get to your gas tanks.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Larry Burns, why don't you explain to folks what you do for
a living.

MR. BURNS: I'm responsible for research and development and strategic
planning for General Motors. And I've been doing that, working for General
Motors for 37 years, actually.

THE PRESIDENT: Thirty-seven years?

MR. BURNS: Yes. I started out in kindergarten --

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I was going to say. (Laughter.) You're obviously not in
politics because your hair is not grey. (Laughter.)

You know, it's interesting, I bet you people don't know this -- a lot of
people don't know -- there are 4.5 million automobiles on the road today
that can either burn gasoline or ethanol -- called flex-fuel vehicles.
Isn't that interesting? And people don't know that. In other words, the
technology is available.

Pick it up from there. I'm trying to give you -- (laughter.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Tell people what a flex-fuel vehicle is. What is it? Tell
them what it is.

MR. BURNS: What it is, it's a vehicle that can burn both gasoline and E-85
ethanol. As you explained, it's 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
So any mixture between gasoline and E-85 a vehicle can burn. And in fact,
E-85 burns cleaner and yields higher horsepower than gasoline, it's
renewable and it can be homegrown. So we think it's an ideal fuel.

THE PRESIDENT: Does it cost much to make the engine --

MR. BURNS: No, no, actually not. It's a pretty straightforward thing for us
to do. The fuel injectors in your engine have to be changed, but this is
one of the reasons we can do it in high volume and give our customers the
choice.

THE PRESIDENT: In other words, this isn't something that's going to be real
expensive to the consumer, if somebody wants a flex-fuel vehicle?

MR. BURNS: No, not in terms of the vehicle.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: But people are sitting there saying, well, okay, maybe
you've manufactured the fuel from different sources, but do you have the
automobiles to use it. And the point is the technology is already advanced.
I mean, they're out there, people on the road using it. So the question is
now, can we get the fuel manufactured close to where people are driving
flex-fuel vehicles, or vice versa, so that we can get this technology
expanded throughout the country.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: We're spending $1.2 billion over a five-year period on -- or
10-year period for hydrogen research. I would warn folks that I think the
hybrid battery and the ethanol technologies will precede hydrogen. Hydrogen
is a longer-term opportunity. It's going to take a while for hydrogen
automobiles to develop, plus the infrastructure necessary to make sure
people can actually have convenience when it comes to filling up your car
with hydrogen. But, nevertheless, I'm pleased to hear that GM is joining
the federal government on the leading edge of technological change.

MR. BURNS: The important part about that battery, too, is it's a stepping
stone to the fuel-cell vehicle. We imagine our fuel-cell vehicles will have
some form of storing energy, because as your car slows down, you want to
capture that energy and store it. So it's not like we're making one
investment here that doesn't help another one. They all come together --
the ethanol, the batteries and the fuel cells are really one and the same
road map to get to the future that offers a lot of alternatives for our
nation.

THE PRESIDENT: Great. Thanks for joining us.

MR. BURNS: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Patty Stulp.

MS. STULP: Hi. Good morning, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: You've got an interesting business.

MS. STULP: I do, thank you. I blend ethanol for a gasoline refinery.

THE PRESIDENT: You blend ethanol for a gasoline refinery.

MS. STULP: Would you like me to tell about it?

THE PRESIDENT: I wish you would. (Laughter.) Please don't ask me to tell
you about it.

MS. STULP: I've been involved in ethanol industry for over 20 years. I grew
up on a farm in Yuma County. I need to point out that Yuma County is the
number one corn-producing county in the nation most years. I'm a fourth
generation --

THE PRESIDENT: Number one corn-producing county in the country.

MS. STULP: It's in Colorado?

THE PRESIDENT: Really?

MS. STULP: We grow a lot of corn, about --

THE PRESIDENT: That's not what they told me in Iowa, but that's all right.
(Laughter.) I believe you.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Well said. Our economy -- a strong economy is one that needs
a good farm economy. And the more markets there are for our farmers, the
stronger the economy is going to be. And ethanol is just another market.

MS. STULP: Mr. President, we really appreciate your support of this
program.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, listen it makes sense. Anybody who doesn't support it
doesn't quite understand the problems we face. But thanks. Good job. You're
a pioneer yourself.

MS. STULP: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Colorado is famous for pioneers. (Laughter.) Bill Frey,
straight out of Delaware, is that right?

MR. FREY: Straight out of Delaware, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Welcome.

MR. FREY: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Tell people what you do.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Are you dedicating a lot of dollars to research and
development? I know you are in general, but how about to alternative
sources of energy?

MR. FREY: Absolutely. Absolutely. And we're doing it in two regards -- most
of the discussion so far has been around the issue of fuels as an output.
We do a lot of work in terms of using cellulose-based or using corn-based
raw materials to make materials, as well.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Let's see what I can ask you here. (Laughter.) What is your
relationship -- what is the nature of the relationship with NREL? When you
say you work with NREL, tell people how the private sector and government
entities interface.

MR. FREY: People have mentioned bio-refinery -- I think probably everyone
so far has mentioned bio-refinery

-- and we're working very closely with NREL -- NREL, of course, has had a
number of years of being in the space looking at renewable energy, doing a
lot of the foundation work that allows us to now look at how we're going to
commercialize cellulosics. So we're doing a lot of work in the area of
bio-refinery with NREL, looking at how we can take a process which, today,
has challenges associated with the economics of doing it, so it's an issue
of economics. It's not a technology issue, the technology works. It's the
economics of that technology. So we're spending a lot of time on trying to
solve those problems.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you have people here from your company coming --

MR. FREY: Actually, there are people meeting today off-site, because of
this particular event -- (laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: I said I was a pain. Look, I said it up front. (Laughter.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Part of it is the process of converting the switch grass to
fuel, and part of it is to make sure the manufacturing process yields a
cost-effective product. And that's a lot of what you're discussing, which
is important.

MR. FREY: And it's important, I think, also for a lot of the constituents
to know that there isn't an either/or situation as it relates to the type
of work that we're doing with cellulose. There's some confusion at times as
to is cellulosic going to take the place of corn-based ethanol, and, of
course, it's not going to at all.

THE PRESIDENT: The answer is, no. We have plenty of demand. I mean, there's
going to be a lot of cars. We've only got 4.5 million cars -- what are
there, 220 million cars in America? And by the way, just to make sure
everybody's expectations are set, our fleet is not going to change
overnight. It takes a while. When you get new technologies available for
people to buy -- hybrid vehicles or flex-fuel vehicles -- it takes a while
to change a 220-million car fleet to a modern fleet.

And so what we're talking about is an evolution, so people don't have the
expectations that overnight there's going to be millions of people driving
hybrid vehicles or -- we want them to be. It's just going to -- from a
practical perspective, it takes a while.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: I think part of this deal today is to help develop national
will. Most Americans understand the problems. And so, thanks for joining.
You did a fine job. Tell them back -- hello there in Delaware.

MR. FREY: All right. I'm sure they're watching --

THE PRESIDENT: They're watching. Well, give them a wave.

MR. FREY: Okay. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Lori Vaclavik.

MS. VACLAVIK: Vaclavik.

THE PRESIDENT: Vaclavik. It's a very -- you're an interesting addition to
the panel. Besides being a fine person, tell people what you do. I think
people will find this interesting.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Great, thanks -- well-spoken. If anybody in the Denver area
wants to contribute to help somebody's life be a better life, join Habitat
for Humanity. If you want to -- the truth of the matter is, I was just
thinking about -- we're talking about power and power sources and
everything, the true power of the country is the hearts and souls of
citizens who volunteer to help change people's lives. So thanks. Beautiful
statement -- using some technology to help somebody. But you're right, the
great source of inspiration is the fact that we got a new homeowner. Yes,
that's neat.

Welcome. Dale, step forth. (Laughter.)

MR. GARDNER: I'm here, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Good. Reporting for duty. Are you gainfully employed?

MR. GARDNER: I am. (Laughter.) As long as you're kind to my boss.
(Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: As long as Congress quits earmarking. Anyway.

MR. GARDNER: Well, we could talk about that, too. (Laughter.) I am here at
NREL, but I directly support the hydrogen program back at the Department of
Energy.

THE PRESIDENT: Great.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: So like if you got a two-year-old child, when the person
gets to be 12, maybe thinking about driving a car, all of a sudden, the
technology becomes more real -- pretty close. For a guy 59, 10 years is a
lot. (Laughter.) If you're two, it's not all that much. (Laughter.) It's
conceivable that a two-year-old today could be taking a driver's test in a
hydrogen-power automobile.

Keep going.

MR. GARDNER: So here's what we're doing. The major technological challenges
-- I can boil them up into three areas. There are many, but here is a good
way to think about it. The first is production of hydrogen. Hydrogen, even
though it's the most common element in the universe, here on Earth it's not
found freely. It's bound up into these larger molecules and, therefore, it
takes us energy and dollars to break it free. So that's the main thing.

THE PRESIDENT: One reason why we need to expand nuclear power is to be able
to help manufacture ample quantities of hydrogen to help change the way we
live.

MR. GARDNER: That's exactly right. We can take that electricity from a
nuclear power plant, electrolyze water, which just means break the hydrogen
free from the oxygen and then have it for a fuel source. So production is
one of our big goals. And the goal there, of course, is to make the cost of
the hydrogen competitive with gasoline today; otherwise you and I won't
want to buy it at the filling station.

THE PRESIDENT: Correct.

MR. GARDNER: The second area is storage. This is really an interesting one.
Because hydrogen is the simplest element, it has the complexity that
affects us in terms of using hydrogen in vehicles. We have to go put
hydrogen in a tank, just as we do gasoline. Well, because it's so light,
and its density is so low, it's really hard to pack enough of it into a
tack that's not the size of your whole trunk, such that we can get 300
miles down the road. And for Larry to sell a car to one of us, we want to
go at least 300 miles more, especially when you're driving in Texas, a long
way between filling stations. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. And we want more than one seat in the automobile.
(Laughter.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: So you've been looking at this for three years. Is this like
science fiction, or are we talking about something that you think will come
to fruition?

MR. GARDNER: This is going to happen.

THE PRESIDENT: Pretty exciting, isn't it?

MR. GARDNER: It's going to be out in the middle of the century. It's not
going to be something that's going to happen in the next 15 or 20 years,
but it's going to be the way our kids and our grandkids view the energy
structure of our country. It's very exciting work.

THE PRESIDENT: In 1981, I don't think anybody ever thought there would be
such a thing as email. Matter of fact, we were still writing letters
longhand, if I recall. Typewriters were kind of the -- now it's computer.
It's amazing what research and development can do to the way we live.
Payphones to cell phones in 20 years. I think what we're hearing is change
of lifestyle in incredibly important ways in the research that's taking
place.

You can't have -- we live in an instant gratification world, so we got to
be wise about how we make investments. Part of the strategy is intermediate
term, part of the strategy is long-term. Thanks for explaining an important
long-term strategy. You did a fine job, boiled it down, simplified it.
Point one, two, three. (Laughter.) Thank you for joining us, and thanks for
your work on that.

Finally, Pat Vincent, the President and CEO of --

MS. VINCENT: Public Service Company of Colorado.

THE PRESIDENT: Great. Thanks for joining us.

MS. VINCENT: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: You have a vested interest in all this.

MS. VINCENT: I do. I do. And I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to
tell you about it.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: What is the main source of your power today?

MS. VINCENT: It's a mix between coal and natural gas.

THE PRESIDENT: Coal -- right, right -- 50-50?

MS. VINCENT: We have some nuclear in Minnesota. Depends on the state. Here
in Colorado, it's predominantly natural gas.

THE PRESIDENT: And what states do you cover?

MS. VINCENT: We cover 10 states. We cover the panhandle of Texas.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you?

MS. VINCENT: We do.

THE PRESIDENT: People paying their bills down there? (Laughter.)

MS. VINCENT: They are -- they are.

THE PRESIDENT: That's good. A fine part of the country, I want to you know.
Well, you don't need to name them all. A 10-state area.

MS. VINCENT: Yes, 10 states.

THE PRESIDENT: And you're based where?

MS. VINCENT: I'm based here in Denver, and this is our largest utility
company here, is in Colorado. And we have a wind source program that has
been around since 1998.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: So like when you analyze the wind turbine technology, is it
advancing rapidly? Is there more advances being made -- or am I getting you
out of your lane here?

MS. VINCENT: No, it's advancing rapidly. And what we're finding is like Dan
talked about, the demand for solar, is that the demand for the turbines is
starting to outstrip the supply. And a lot of it's going overseas. The
production tax credit really helps us here because it kind of goes in boom
and bust cycles, so that has really helped us levelize the demand and make
them commercially feasible. And people like GE are making big strides in
wind technology.

THE PRESIDENT: Good.

* * * * *

MS. VINCENT: I don't know about your experience with wind, but it does blow
intermittently here in Colorado and --

THE PRESIDENT: It does in Washington, too. (Laughter.)

MS. VINCENT: I wasn't sure if it was all the time, or just intermittently.

THE PRESIDENT: Lately, all the time. (Laughter.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: By the way, this may interest you if you are -- these people
manufacturing photovoltaic products can't make enough. I mean, the demand
for these things is huge. And there's just not enough capacity. The plant
we were at yesterday is going to double in size. They're making neat
roofing materials, by the way. I'm not their marketing guy -- (laughter) --
just happens to be on my mind. What's interesting about the discussion is
the utility industry needs alternative sources of energy in order for them
to be able to do their job. I think that's what you're saying.

MS. VINCENT: Yes, and it's good our customers, it's good for the
communities, and it's good for us --

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.

MS. VINCENT: -- our shareholders.

THE PRESIDENT: It's good for your customers, it's good for you.

MS. VINCENT: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: And I know you feel that way. Managing peak electricity
loads with alternative sources of energy makes a lot of sense.

MS. VINCENT: Yes, it does.

THE PRESIDENT: You did a fine job.

MS. VINCENT: Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: So that's why we're here, to talk about a variety of options
to achieve a great national goal. And there's no doubt in my mind we're
going to achieve it. And it's exciting. It's exciting times to be involved
with all aspects of this strategy. And you heard some of our fellow
citizens describe to you what they're doing to be a part of this giant
effort, giant effort to change the way we live, so that future generations
of Americans will look back at this period and say, thank goodness there
was yet another generation of pioneers and entrepreneurs willing to think
differently on behalf of the country.

Thanks for coming. God bless. (Applause.)

END 10:20 A.M. MST

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