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Ärende: Press Release (0610124) for Thu, 2006 Oct 12
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President Bush Discusses Energy at Renewable Energy Conference
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 12, 2006

President Bush Discusses Energy at Renewable Energy Conference
St. Louis Convention Center
St. Louis, Missouri


˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Energy

12:29 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. I appreciate the chance to come
and speak to the Renewable Energy Conference. I hope you're excited about
being here, because I sure am. This is -- it's exciting to be with --
(applause.) I view this as kind of a meeting of pioneers, people who are on
the leading edge of change, and people whose research, thought, and
production will all help this country become stronger and better. And so I
appreciate you giving me a chance to come by and visit with you.

This is a -- energy is a subject dear to my heart -- as it should be for
any President -- because you can't grow your economy without energy. And
yet, it is apparent, and should be for most Americans, we got to change our
habits if we want to remain the economic leader of the world.

Before I share some of my thoughts with you, I do want to recognize members
of my Cabinet who have joined you: The Secretary of Agriculture, Mike
Johanns; the Secretary of Energy, Sam Bodman; and the Administrator of the
EPA, Steve Johnson.

I think it is interesting that when we -- we got an energy conference going
on here, that we have the Secretary of Energy, which makes sense --
(laughter) -- but the Secretary of Agriculture, as well. And the man who
runs the EPA, whose job it is to make sure our environment is clean, is
with us. And the reason I find that interesting is because we've got an
interesting confluence of national security concerns and environmental
concerns that come together, probably unlike any other time in our history.
And I want to share some thoughts with you about that in a minute.

I do want to thank the United States Senators from the state of Missouri --
both men believe strongly in the future of renewable energy -- and that
would be Kit Bond and Jim Talent. Thank you for coming. (Applause.) I
appreciate Congressman Todd Akin being here, and his wife, Lulli.

You know, I -- gasoline prices are down, and that's good news. (Applause.)
Yes. I think everybody in America ought to be applauding. (Laughter.) It's
like -- if you're driving a truck for a living, it helps you. If you're
trying to put food on the table and you got to drive to work, it helps you.
If you're a small business owner, it means you've got more capital to
invest when the price of gasoline goes down.

My worry is, however, that a low price of gasoline will make it complacent
-- make us complacent about our future when it comes to energy, because I
fully understand that energy is going to help determine whether or not this
nation remains the economic leader in the world. We're doing fine now.
We've got a really strong economy, and in order to make sure it's strong
tomorrow we need to make sure we work on how we use energy.

Energy is -- look, let me just put it bluntly: We're too dependent on oil.
We are a -- (applause.) And see, low gasoline prices may mask that concern.
So, first, I want to tell you that I welcome the low gasoline prices,
however it's not going to dim my enthusiasm for making sure we diversify
away from oil.

We need to diversify away from oil for economic reasons. We live in a
global world. When the demand for oil goes up in China or in India, it
causes the price of crude oil to rise and, since we import about 60 percent
of the crude oil we use, it causes our price to go up, as well, which means
the economy becomes less competitive.

And then, of course, there's the national security concern for oil. Why?
Well, we get oil from some countries who don't particularly care for us.
They don't like what we stand for. They don't like it when we say, for the
sake of peace, let us work in a way that we don't develop nuclear weapons,
for example.

I spend a lot of time on national security issues, which you expect your
President to do. And a lot of times those national security issues are
involved with countries that have oil. They have something we want, and so
there's a national security issue when it comes to the status quo. And
then, of course, we have a great debate about the environment in America,
and that's good. It's an important debate. We all want to be good stewards
of our environment. We want to be good conservationists. And reliance upon
oil and hydrocarbons has created some challenges when it comes to the
environment.

And so this is one of the reasons why I believe so strongly that this
country has got to use its talent and its wealth to get us off oil. And I
believe we will do so, and I believe -- I know the best way to do so is
through technological breakthroughs.

And the government has got a role to play. First, I understand there are
some entrepreneurs here, some people that are investors, venture
capitalists, and I welcome you here. I think it's a good sign for those of
us who understand the need to diversify away from oil that private money is
beginning to make investments into some of the technologies I'm going to be
describing.

And we can help you in Washington, and one way we can help you is to reward
people for investing in research and development. There's a research and
development tax credit that's on the books. The problem is, it expires
every year, on a year-by-year basis, which means you've got to come back to
Congress on a year-to-year basis; which also means there's unpredictability
in the tax code, and that's not wise, if you're trying to encourage people
to invest dollars in the long-term. And so in order to encourage private
initiative and private investment in new energies, we ought to make the
research and development tax credit a permanent part of the tax code.
(Applause.)

And we need to continue what we're doing at the federal level, which is
spend your money on research. I think it's a legitimate use of taxpayers'
money, to spend on grants, to find new ways to power our economy, new ways
to conserve, new ways to protect the environment through new technologies.

Since I've been President, we've spent about $10 billion on research. A lot
of goes through Sam's shop. He's the Energy man. (Laughter.) We will
vigorously pursue new ways to power our automobiles. If you want to get off
oil, the surest and quickest way to do so is to change how we power our
automobiles. We consume a lot of oil, through gasoline. And the more
inefficient our cars are, the more we drive old clunkers, the more gasoline
we use, which means we're more dependent on oil.

And so we've got some interesting initiatives at the federal level to help
change habits. One of them is, and it's probably the fastest way we can
begin to change the consumer habits, is to promote hybrid vehicles. You all
know what hybrids are, it's a combination of gas and -- gasoline and
electric battery that gets the driver a lot more miles per gallon.

And so one way to do this -- one way to encourage people to buy hybrids,
one way to stimulate demand so that the production will follow -- is to
provide tax credits. You can get up to, now, $3,400 tax credit when you buy
your hybrid automobile. In other words, the government is using the tax
code to stimulate demand, which then should stimulate more automobile --
more production on the auto lines of hybrids. And the more hybrids we get
on the road, the less oil we're going to be using.

Secondly, we're spending money on new battery technologies. See, we
envision a day in which light and powerful batteries will become available
in the marketplace so that you can drive the first 40 miles on electricity,
on batteries, and your car won't have to look like a golf cart. (Laughter.)
In other words, it will be a technology that will meet consumer demand and
at the same time meet a national need, which is less consumption of
gasoline. These are called plug-in hybrid vehicles.

And the battery technology is coming. In order to expedite it, Sam's shop,
the Department of Energy, is putting out grants. In other words, we're
using your money to expedite the arrival of a new technology that will
enable folks to drive the first 40 miles on electricity.

That's not going to help rural Missouri or rural Texas, but it's certainly
going to help those who live in the cities. Most folks in the cities don't
drive more than 40 miles, so you can envision consumer habits beginning to
change: You drive to work; you go home; you plug in your automobile. And
you go -- ride to work and go home the next -- and you're still on
electricity. It's going to change the consumption patterns. This new
technology will change the consumption patterns on gasoline, which in turn
will make us less dependent on crude oil, which meets a national security
concern, an economic security concern, and helps us deal with an
environmental concern.

Now, there's another technology that will enable us to help change our
driving habits, and that's ethanol. See, I like the idea of promoting a
fuel that relies upon our farmers. I happen to believe a good farm economy
is important to a good national economy, and I also know it makes sense to
have our -- (applause.) Sounds like we might have some farmers here.
(Laughter.)

But I also know it makes sense to have our farmers growing the feedstock
for new energy. The way I like to tell our citizens is Johanns is going to
come in someday and say, "Mr. President, corn is up, which means we're less
dependent on oil." And that's good news for the country and good news for
our economy.

People are using ethanol. For those of you who are in the ethanol business,
you're on the leading edge of change. It's coming, and government can help.
That's why we enhanced and extended the 10-cent-per-gallon tax credit. We
did that to stimulate production. We've extended a 51-cent-per-gallon tax
credit for ethanol blenders. We provided a 30-percent tax credit for the
installation of alternative fuel stations, up to $30,000 a year.

In other words, I believe and Congress agrees that the proper use of tax
credits will help stimulate a new industry that will help our economy and
help us when it comes to national security. You know, we're up to now 5
billion gallons of ethanol sold this year. That's up from 1.6 billion
gallons in 2000. Ethanol -- there are now 100 ethanol refineries which are
operating. There -- it's anticipated there are going to be 40 more next
year. In other words, we're just at the beginning stages of a new industry
that is evolving. It's one of the reasons I'm excited to be here. For those
of you on the cutting edge, I want to thank you, and just let you know we
want you to succeed. It's in our interests that you do succeed.

Today there are 900 stations selling E85. For those of you who don't know
what that means, that's 85 percent ethanol. Look, a lot of Americans wonder
whether or not this is feasible, what I'm talking about. A lot of folks
aren't exposed to ethanol yet. In the Midwest you are, you've got a lot of
corn. And it makes a lot of sense to have these plants where the feedstocks
are. But ethanol is coming, and it doesn't require much money to convert a
regular gasoline-driven car to a flex-fuel automobile. See, the technology
is available. It takes about $100-something to change a gasoline-only
automobile to one that can use E85. And it works.

And in my judgment, the thing that's preventing ethanol from becoming more
widespread across the country is the lack of other types of feedstocks that
are required to make ethanol -- sugar works, corn works, and it seems like
it makes sense to spend money, your money, on researching cellulosic
ethanol, so that we could use wood chips, or switch grass, or other natural
materials. (Applause.)

And we've got an aggressive effort to research new raw materials to be used
in ethanol. I was down in Alabama -- I'm going to tell you an interesting
story when I was down there the other day. But I talked to a fellow from
Auburn, he's a Ph.D. -- just reminded me the difference between a Ph.D. and
a C student; the C student is the President, and the Ph.D. is the advisor.
(Laughter and applause.)

But he's telling me how optimistic he is that someday we're going to be
able to take wood chips from those southern pine forests, and convert that
raw material into ethanol. He said it's right around the corner, as far as
he's concerned. It makes a lot of sense for the federal government to
continue to invest taxpayers' money, because the more different raw
materials that are practical in use, the more ethanol production facilities
will spread around the country. And the more spread around -- the more
production there is, the more likely it is that the entire industry will
evolve quicker.

So you've got a lot of plants here in the Midwest. The vision has got to be
for these plants to be able to spread throughout the entire country. And
when it does, ethanol will become a primary source for the fuel people use,
which will help us meet our national security and economic concerns and
objectives.

The Department of Energy announced $250 million in funding to establish and
operate two new bioenergy research center, all aimed at accelerating basic
research into cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. I suspect we've got
some soybean growers here. I know you've got some in Missouri. (Applause.)
I have been to a biodiesel plant in Virginia. And it doesn't take much
capital investment to refine biodiesel from soy, soybeans; it just doesn't.
Biodiesel is coming. It makes a lot of sense for us to continue to invest
in biodiesel technologies to make the production process even more
efficient. I have seen biodiesel poured into a new truck, and watched that
truck crank right up, and realize it emitted no emissions. I know, because
I put a handkerchief over the stack. (Laughter.)

These are exciting times, and people are beginning to take advantage of
them. I told you I was down in Alabama. I went to the Hoover Police
Department. They're using E85. Their people on the beat are filling up
their cars with E85. I asked a guy, one of the policemen -- I said, "Why do
you use it?" He said, "First of all, I like the fact that it keeps the
environment clean" -- that's a good reason. He said, "By the way, when you
fill it up with the 85 it gives you better get-up-and-go." (Laughter.) In
other words, it works. That's a good sign when police departments begin to
use E85.

I was over at a FedEx place, and they've got what they call the OptiFleet
E700 -- it's a new vehicle, all aimed at reducing emissions by 96 percent.
In other words, people are thinking differently now. There's a whole new
industry beginning to evolve. Users are beginning to understand the
benefits of using ethanol or biodiesel. And these are exciting times.

And the federal government's job is to continue to research so that we
provide our consumers, the American people, with more options. And one of
the great options that's coming down the road is hydrogen. That's a
longer-term project. If you notice, I kind of talk about hybrids that are
on the road today and how we stimulate demand, hybrids that are coming with
new batteries, ethanol which is now evolving into a significant industry.
Ultimately, in my judgment, one of the ways to make sure that we become
fully less dependent on oil is through hydrogen. And we're spending $1.2
billion to encourage hydrogen fuel cells. It's coming, it's coming. It's an
interesting industry evolution, to think about your automobiles being
powered by hydrogen, and the only emission is water vapor.

Oh, I'm sure there are some people out there saying, well, you know, he's
just dreaming. Well, I'm just listening to the dreamers who happen to be
good, smart, capable people who know what they're talking about --

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Out of Iraq now! Out of Iraq now! Soldiers are not
renewables!

THE PRESIDENT: Since 2003, my administration has made hydrogen and
fuel-cell technology a priority -- (audience interruption) -- and we will
continue to research to make sure America is less dependent on foreign
sources of oil. (Applause.)

As you can tell, I'm excited about new technologies. But I think we've got
to be realistic about the timing. And in order to become less dependent on
foreign sources of oil, we've got to explore for oil and gas in our own
hemisphere in environmentally friendly ways. And one of the interesting
technological developments is the capacity to find oil in unique places. I
don't know if you followed recently the exploration in the Gulf of Mexico,
where there was a well that was drilled five miles in depth in thousands of
feet of water.

In other words, these new technologies enable us to go to new places, and
they enable us to be wise stewards of the environment. I understand there's
a big debate about whether or not you can explore for oil and gas and
protect the environment. I believe you can. And I understand that as we
transition to the ethanol era we must also -- or the hydrogen area, we must
also find oil and gas in our own hemisphere if the objective is to become
less dependent on foreign oil. (Applause.)

They estimate that the new discovery in the deep Gulf of Mexico could
increase our reserves from 10 to 50 percent. In other words, this is a big
deal. And Congress is debating an energy bill. They passed a good energy
bill, by the way, in the past, that encourages conservation and encourages
a lot of the research that I was talking about, understands we've got to
diversify away from our current structure. But there's another bill out
there, and they need to get the work done. They need to come together
between the House and the Senate version to encourage exploration in the
Gulf of Mexico in new areas to make sure that we transition to a new day
when it comes to energy. (Applause.)

And I believe that states ought to share in the royalties because I know,
in the state of Louisiana, for example, they have committed their share of
new royalties in this new exploration to help protect their coastline. And
I believe Congress needs to get the bill to my desk as quick as possible.
So when you finish the elections, get back and let me sign this bill so the
American people know that we're serious about getting off foreign oil.

And that's going to be important because we can find a lot of natural gas
offshore, for example, and we need natural gas in order to make sure we
meet our second objective, and that's how we protect the environment and
power our society.

I don't know if you know this or not, but electricity is generated from
natural gas, about 18 percent; coal, 50 percent; nuclear power, 20 percent;
and then -- solar and wind. And the fundamental question is, can the
federal government help make sure that we have energy so we can power our
economy, protect the environment, and grow. And the answer is, we can, and
we can spend money to help you.

One thing we don't need to spend money on but need to do is permit more
liquefied natural gas terminals. LNG is a new technology that is -- it's
not that new, but it's evolving technology. It means you can get -- buy
natural gas from overseas in liquefied form and de-liquefy it. There's a
lot of natural gas in the world, and it makes sense for us to be in a
position to receive that natural gas in order to make sure you've got
energy in your home.

A shortage of natural gas causes your electricity bills to go up. Supply of
natural gas, increased supply, makes it more likely that you're going to
have rational bills, more likely the economy will continue to grow. And
natural gas protects the environment.

Secondly, on coal, we got a lot of coal. We got 250 years of coal. That's a
lot, and yet coal presents us with an environmental challenge. And so we're
spending quite a bit of money here at the federal level to come up with
clean-coal technologies. If you want to be less dependent on foreign
sources of energy, it seems like it makes sense to me that we use the
energies we have here at home and do so in environmentally friendly ways.

We're spending $2 billion to promote technologies that will enable our
coal-fired plants to protect the environment. As a matter of fact, we got
what's called a future-gen initiative. By the year 2012, we'll build the
first clean-coal power plant that will remove virtually all pollutants and
greenhouse gases from burning coal. In other words, there's a way coming
that's going to enable us to use this plentiful resource. (Applause.)

A controversial subject is nuclear power. You might remember, we've had a
time in our country where people liked nuclear power, thought it was a
strong solution to energy independence, and then we just shut her down
because of engineering concerns. I strongly believe that if we want to keep
this country competitive, if we want to make sure we can compete globally,
we must promote civilian nuclear power. We must have more energy coming
from nuclear power. (Applause.)

Nuclear power is renewable, and there are no greenhouse gases associated
with nuclear power. One of the problems we've had is that nobody wants to
build any plants. They're afraid of the costs of regulation and the
litigious nature that surrounds the construction of nuclear power plants --
litigious problems surrounding the construction of the nuclear power
plants.

And so, in the energy bill that I signed, the Congress wisely provided
incentives and risk insurance for nuclear power plant construction. Last
year only three companies were seeking to build power plants -- nuclear
power plants. Today 14 have expressed new interest in construction. In
other words, there's a new industry beginning to come back.

I think it's very important for us to spend dollars on how to best deal
with the waste, in other words, research new ways to be able to assure the
American people that we'll be able to deal with the nuclear waste in a
smart way. And that's why we're teaming up with France, and Japan, and
Russia to spend money -- $250 million from the United States' perspective,
and they're matching it -- on what's called the Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership, all designed to research reprocessing and fast-burner
reactors.

The idea is to take the nuclear industry, take the spent fuel, reprocess
it, put it into a fast-burner reactor, which will yield about 90 percent
less of the waste than under the current system. What I'm telling you is,
is that the engineering is much safer today than it has been in the past,
and we're spending money to make sure that we can deal with the waste in a
sane way, so that we can with confidence say to the American people, now is
the time to accelerate the expansion of nuclear power for the sake of
national and economic security. (Applause.)

I believe that with the proper amount of research, whether it be public or
private, we will have solar roofs that will enable the American family to
be able to generate their own electricity. And it's coming. (Applause.)

I believe wind power has got the opportunity to help. All we need is to put
a couple of windmills right there in Washington, D.C., and we'll be --
(laughter) -- less dependent on foreign sources of energy. (Applause.)

What I'm talking about is a comprehensive approach to solving a national
issue, which is dependence on oil, and how best to protect this
environment. You know, it's time to get rid of the old, stale debates on
the environment and recognize new technologies are going to enable us to
achieve a lot of objectives at the same time. (Applause.)

Technology will enable us to be able to say we can grow our economy and
protect our environment at the same time. It's not a zero-sum game anymore.
(Applause.) These technological breakthroughs are going to say to our
farmers, you're energy producers. And that's good for America. It's going
to say to those entrepreneurs that are risk-takers, this is a good place to
try to make a good return on capital.

There's a lot of smart money in the United States going into energy
diversification and to research. And for those of you here, thanks. I hope
you make a good return. I think you will. There is no question in my mind
that we're on the verge of significant breakthroughs, and so what I wanted
to come and tell you is, one, thanks for your interest, thanks for showing
up at a conference like this. You're the beginning of what's going to be a
new environmental debate, an economy based upon new technologies, a new way
to power our automobiles, and a way that says by making good decisions now
and researching now, we'll leave behind a better world for our children.

Some day, some -- the 56th President will be standing up here saying, I
appreciate the fact that there was some pioneers back in America in those
days; I can't spent too much time because I've got to go get my limousine
filled up by hydrogen -- (laughter) -- but I appreciate the fact that the
solar panels are working so you can see me. (Laughter.) In other words,
it's coming, and I'm excited to be a part of it. And I hope you're excited,
as well.

Thanks for letting me come by. God bless. (Applause.)

END 1:01 P.M. CDT

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