Remarks by President Bush on Energy Initiative

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is a
 transcript of remarks by President Bush:
     DuPont Theater
     Hotel du Pont
     Wilmington, Delaware
 
     11:01 a.m. EST
     THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks for coming.
 (Applause.) Thanks for such a warm welcome here in Delaware. I thank you,
 for those of you who stayed up for the speech last night, thanks.
 (Laughter.) If you're 60 and over, it's a little late to stay up, I
 understand. But it's exciting always to go in front of the Congress. And I
 appreciate the good Senator, Tom Carper, for joining us, and thanks for
 bringing along Martha, a DuPont alumna, by the way. (Applause.)
     And I want to thank Congressman Mike Castle, as well, for joining me
 here in Delaware. And thanks for paying attention last night. (Laughter.) I
 asked Castle if he stayed awake for the whole thing, and he said, well,
 just the first 55 minutes. And I said, well -- (laughter.)
     I'm excited to be here to talk about what I talked -- part of what I
 talked about last night. And I can't think of a better place to talk about
 innovation technology change and a better tomorrow than DuPont. The history
 - - (applause.) I thank Chad Holliday for inviting me here and introducing
 me to some of your fellow workers who are really putting this country on
 the leading edge of technological change. And I want to spend a little time
 talking about this energy initiative.
     But first I want to thank all the good folks at DuPont for really
 leading with your brains. And as the Secretary of Energy, Sam Bodman, told
 me coming in -- he said, when he was -- see, he's like a graduate from MIT,
 which -- so he's a smart guy and I'm the President. But anyway --
 (laughter.) It's the way it works sometimes, you know. (Applause.) He said,
 when he went to MIT, they looked at DuPont as a case study on how to make
 sure science and practical applications came together. And that's what I
 saw today -- I'm going to spend -- as I said, I'm going to spend a little
 time talking about. And so I want to thank -- Chad, thank you and the team
 for inviting me, and all the good employees for taking time to come and
 visit.
     I want to thank the Governor. Madam Governor, thank you for coming. I
 appreciate Governor Minner for joining us. Being governor is a great job,
 and -- (laughter) -- I kind of know what I'm talking about. (Laughter.) And
 I know you agree with me. I know Carper agrees with me, and I know Castle
 agrees with me, as well. (Laughter.) And I know Pete duPont agrees with me,
 and I'm proud that former Governor Pete duPont has joined us here today, as
 well. So thank you current Governor and former Governor for joining us.
 (Applause.)
     Speaker, thanks for being here. I'm proud to see you again. Charlie
 Copeland, thank you for coming, as well. For the statehouse folks, I
 appreciate you serving. For local government, thanks, as well.
     I'm here to talk about an interesting opportunity for our country. I
 made the case last night to the American people that we have got to do
 something about our dependence on oil -- for two reasons. One, dependence
 on oil provides an economic and national security risk, a problem that this
 country better start dealing with in a serious fashion now, before it
 becomes acute. And second, we've got to be wise stewards of the
 environment, and dependency on oil makes it harder to be wise stewards of
 the environment.
     And what's interesting about the debate is it's the confluence of
 national security and economic security concerns and environmental concerns
 that come together and can be solved at the same time by technologies. It's
 really what's begun to evolve here in America. In other words, we can get
 beyond the post-Kyoto -- the pre-Kyoto era with a post-Kyoto strategy, the
 center of which is new technologies.
     Now, I said last night, and I want to spend a little time talking about
 it, that the American people have got to understand that when you're
 dependent on oil, particularly from overseas, if demand goes up for the
 product in other countries relative to supply, the price of product is
 going to go up here. We're in a global economy. And so when the Chinese
 economy grows, or the Indian economy grows -- which we want it to do, by
 the way -- when their economy grows, it provides markets for your products.
 So it's in our interests that we trade. But we've got to understand that
 when the globe becomes interconnected economically, the demand increases in
 other countries can cause the price of oil to go up here, and it has an
 economic effect on our own economy. The more dependent we are on oil from
 overseas, the more likely it is that somebody else's demand is going to
 affect what you pay at the pump for gasoline.
     Secondly, if you're dependent on oil overseas, it means that -- and a
 hostile regime, a regime hostile to the United States produces that oil,
 you become vulnerable to the activity of a hostile regime. In other words,
 somebody doesn't like us, they produce the oil, they decide to do something
 about it, they can affect us. That's -- when I talk about the national
 security risks, that's what I mean. In other words, you don't want your
 President sitting in the Oval Office worried about the activities of a
 hostile regime that could have all kinds of impacts on our security,
 starting with economic security.
     Dependence on oil, as well, means that if a terrorist were able to
 destroy infrastructure somewhere else in the world, it's going to affect
 what you pay for at the gasoline pump. In other words, as we learned, the
 terrorists attacked us in brutal ways; they attacked us by flying airplanes
 into our buildings. But we're also vulnerable to attacks through
 infrastructure around the world that could cause your price, the price you
 pay, to go up.
     And so we've got to do something about it. In other words, government
 has got to be more than just talkers, we got to be problem-solvers. That's
 what the American people expect us to do. That's why I said last night, it
 doesn't matter what side of the aisle we sit on; what the American people
 expect is for people on both sides of the aisle to come together and solve
 problems. And this is a problem. And I'm going to work with Congress to get
 it solved.
     Now, the good news is, is that we're on the verge of some unbelievable
 technological breakthroughs. At this company you've got 2,500 scientists;
 some of the smartest people in our country work here, all trying to develop
 new technologies -- this isn't anything new for DuPont, by the way, this is
 like what you've been doing for a long time -- but trying to develop new
 technologies to help us solve this problem. And that's why I've come here.
 You're employing the best minds possible to address the problem of economic
 and national security and environmental issues, because we're dependent on
 oil. And the American people have got to know that you're making progress.
     As an aside, when I talked about the immigration bill last night, I
 also want you to know I understand that we need to make sure that when a
 smart person from overseas wants to come and work in DuPont, it's in our
 interests to allow him or her to do so. We've got to expand what's called
 H1B visas. I know the Senator and the Congressman understand that. I'm
 looking forward with Congress to do just that. It makes no sense, by the
 way -- I know, I'm getting off topic here -- (laughter) -- but I feel
 strongly about what I'm telling you. It makes no sense to say to a young
 scientist from India, you can't come to America to help this company
 develop technologies that help us deal with our problems. So we've got to
 change that, as well, change that mind set in Washington, D.C. I know we
 can work together on that.
     So we're spending a lot of money, by the way -- your money -- on
 developing -- on helping to develop new technologies. I think it's an
 appropriate use of taxpayers' money to spend on developing new technologies
 to help us deal with problems that affect today and the future for your
 children. We spent about $10 billion so far on the technologies that are --
 I think are going to help change America and our habits. And we're going to
 spend more.
     Part of my request to Congress is going to be, we want to put $2.7
 billion of your money to help concerns and smart people develop new ways of
 powering our homes and powering our automobiles. We're making some
 progress. Let me just share a couple of things that we're doing. One, we're
 spending a lot of your money on clean coal technology. The reason why is
 we've got a lot of coal. If you want to be less dependent on oil from
 overseas -- and by the way, we import about 60 percent of our oil today. In
 1985, it was 27 percent of our oil. So we're becoming exponentially more
 dependent.
     And we've got a lot of coal. And the fundamental question is, can we
 burn that coal to heat your homes in a way that doesn't endanger the
 environment. And so we're spending a lot of money to do that. It's called
 clean coal technology. We're spending billions. The dream one day is for --
 for us to be able to say, here's a coal-fired plant that has zero
 emissions. And it's possible. It's likely, as a matter of fact. And so
 we're spending time -- money doing that.
     We're also spending money on wind and solar. As a matter of fact, I saw
 your solar panel expert. And we spent a little time on -- here's the dream.
 The dream is, some day the technology will be such that you'll be -- your
 house will become a little power generator. And if you use -- if you got
 excess electricity generated by solar, you'll be able to feed it back into
 your grid. Is that possible? Yes, it's possible. As a matter of fact, the
 advance in solar technology has been quite dramatic. There's more advance
 still to be done, which requires your money being spent to help concerns
 develop new solar energy.
     We got a lot of wind -- particularly in Washington. (Laughter and
 applause.) That's what Castle was saying last night, after 55 minutes.
 (Laughter.) Wind energy is an interesting alternative. I strongly believe
 that if we're that interested in greenhouse gases and renewable fuels, this
 country has got to be aggressive about establishing safe nuclear power. If
 that is -- one of our objectives is to be serious about dealing with the
 environment, there's no cleaner source of energy than nuclear power.
     And so we're spending money and research to make sure that the next
 generation power plant is safe. But also we're spending money,
 interestingly enough, on how to process spent fuels better. And believe it
 or not, actually, we're beginning to permit nuclear power plants here in
 America. And that's going to be good for your children. It's going to make
 us less dependent on natural gas from overseas, and it's going to make us
 better stewards of the environment.
     But the big gains to be made is -- for oil, if we're trying to become
 less dependent on oil for economic and national security reasons, is going
 to be made in our automobiles and the power we use in our automobiles.
 That's really where we're going to make significant strides.
     Just a couple of things that are happening that are interesting: One,
 we began a hydrogen initiative that -- where a lot of smart folks are
 beginning to research whether or not we can power automobiles by hydrogen.
 We think it's possible. But it's not going to be possible until I'm 75,
 which is probably 15 years from now. Your children may very well likely be
 driving in automobiles powered by hydrogen -- the waste product which is
 water, by the way. But something has got to happen in the interim. I mean,
 we can't wait, for economic reasons or national security reasons, for
 hydrogen to kick in. In other words, it's still a dream.
     And so we're pushing two interesting types of technologies: one,
 battery technologies -- lithium ionic batteries. For all you history majors
 out there, let me put it to you this way -- (laughter) -- one of these days
 you're going to plug your car into your garage, and you're going to be able
 to drive the first 20 miles on electricity, and your car is not going to
 have to look
     like a golf cart. (Laughter.) And that technology is coming. And we're
 spending money to encourage that kind of technology.
     American automobile companies, as well as foreign automobile companies
 competing for market share here in the United States, understand that's
 where the consumer mentality is evolving. And they're beginning to spend
 their own money, as well as help from the federal government, to develop
 new batteries. It's going to be an exciting time, really, when you think
 about it, when you're able to drive the first 20 miles in a plug-in hybrid
 vehicle without one drop of gasoline, which makes the country less
 dependent on oil.
     Secondly, we're spending a lot of money on different kinds of fuels --
 ethanol. I don't know if you know, but we're now up to a little over 5
 billion gallons a year of ethanol usage. That's a threefold increase in
 five years' time. But what's interesting about technological advances, as
 you know better than me, is that as technology becomes more widely used and
 the markets begin to evolve, that kind of usage is going to accelerate
 quite dramatically. So the first five years may be relatively slow, but the
 next five years is going to be quite dramatic in the amount of ethanol
 produced.
     However, there is a constraint, and that is, the ethanol use today
 comes from corn, and we've got hog growers and chicken growers that need
 corn to feed their animals. And therefore, it's going to be kind of a
 strain, at some point in time, on the capacity for us to have enough
 ethanol to be able to make us less dependent on oil. So what you're doing
 at DuPont becomes vital, and that is cellulosic research.
     And we spent time with some of your scientists that are very bright
 people -- and not only bright people, but optimistic people, about the
 arrival of the day where we're going to be able to make ethanol, which will
 power your automobiles not just from corn, but from wood chips, or switch
 grass, or waste from corn itself, from the stalks. There's all kinds of
 opportunities to make energy to power your automobiles from that which had
 been discarded as waste in the past. And right here at DuPont, you're on
 the leading edge of change.
     I came wondering whether or not cellulosic ethanol was one of these
 things down the road that may be happening, may not, could end up being
 science or science fiction. It's going to be science. It's working. As a
 matter of fact, when I looked at those scientists that you employ here and
 heard them say, this is a reality, Mr. President, this is going to be
 something that we can live by -- really, I got to tell you, I'm incredibly
 encouraged by what I saw. And you need to be, too. And we need to be
 thankful as a nation for companies like DuPont who are spending
 shareholders' money to make sure this country becomes less dependent on oil
 and better stewards of the environment. (Applause.)
     As I said, I do believe, strongly believe, there's a role for
 government; one, spending money directly. I mentioned $2.7 billion for our
 '08 request from Congress -- monies which, by the way, get joint-ventured
 with initiatives, for example, that take place here in DuPont.
     Secondly, I strongly believe that -- and, by the way, in the farm bill,
 request in the farm bill, we're going to put $1.6 billion over 10 years to
 continue this kind of research, as well. But I also strongly believe in the
 research and development tax credit. I believe the tax code should provide
 incentives. And one incentive that makes a lot of sense for this country is
 to incent you to continue to invest your money on research and development.
 And Congress really needs to make the research and development tax credit
 permanent -- see, it lays out for a year. So it's good for next year and --
 (applause.)
     The reason I say that, there's got to be certainty in planning. I mean,
 your financial people are sitting around saying, well, I wonder if they're
 going to renew it next year -- which actually does affect investment around
 the country. And so to the extent that we can make this a permanent part of
 the tax code, it will add certainty to planners, and when you have
 certainty in planners it means it's more likely we're going to get better
 research and more money into the experiments that these good scientists are
 doing here at DuPont.
     And so,last night, based upon what I just told you -- based upon
 optimism, new science, progress that we have made -- I announced a goal for
 the country which is to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the
 next 10 years. If we are -- when we do that, it will mean that we have
 reduced the amount of imported oil from the Middle East -- or the
 equivalent of the imported oil from the Middle East by about
 three-quarters. And that's important. It's really going to be important for
 your children that this country has become able to -- be able to say to the
 hostile regime, leave us alone, you can't affect us, we'll protect
 ourselves in all kinds of ways from you.
     And so I put out a mandatory fuel standard. This is a government
 mandate that says we'll be using 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels by
 2017. This is a firm statement. You know, I signed an energy bill that had
 renewable fuel standards of seven billion gallons. And so this is five
 times larger than that. I base it on -- and this is a practical declaration
 -- and I base it on the fact of how much we've increased ethanol, but I've
 also based it on the fact that we're going to have breakthroughs in
 cellulosic ethanol, as well.
     And to couple that in order to make sure we're 20 percent less
 dependent in 10 years, I also proposed to Congress that we change the fuel
 efficiency standards in our automobiles. Something that the American people
 don't know about is that during my administration, we changed the CAFE
 standard for trucks. And basically, we said we're going to take the weight
 of each type of truck and set a fuel standard specific to weight. It's a
 little hard to explain, except for it has achieved a lot of conservation
 efficiencies. We need to do the same thing for cars.
     If you have an overall fleet CAFE standard, what ends up happening is,
 is that the bigger cars have lower gas mileages than they could otherwise,
 and the little cars have high gas mileages, which reduces the safety in the
 automobiles. And so we believe that if you make -- set CAFE standards based
 upon weight, it will help meet consumer demand and makes better science. As
 a matter of fact, this is an idea we got from the National Academy of
 Science.
     And so Congress, I'm hopeful, recognizes the great potential in new
 technologies, that we're able to have a new mandatory fuel standard and new
 CAFE standards for our automobiles, all aiming to make us less dependent on
 oil, and thereby, making us more secure nationally and be able to say we're
 better stewards of the environment.
     I said two things last night I want to follow up on; one, I don't know
 if you know this, but technology for the exploration for hydrocarbons is
 unbelievably advanced these days. And I'm confident that -- I know we're
 going to need, if we want to be less dependent on foreign oil, we need to
 be exploring here at home. And there's some unbelievably great deep-water
 gas potential in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, and we can explore for
 those hydrocarbons in environmentally friendly ways. And we need to
 continue to do so. In other words, it's going to take a while to get to a
 world where we're much less dependent on foreign oil, and we need to be
 exploring in environmentally friendly ways -- and we can.
     And if a terrorist threat -- if terrorism is a threat to the supply of
 -- our energy supply, then I believe it makes sense to address that
 terrorist threat by doubling the size of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,
 so that, rather than 750 million gallons of crude oil in storage in case
 there's a disruption based upon a terrorist threat, there's a billion-five.
 In other words, if we're saying dependence on oil creates a terrorist
 threat, let's do something about it now. Let's say that if the threat does
 come, there's enough crude oil in storage to be able to deal with the
 short-term economic consequences of an attack.
     So that's why I said what I said the other night. It's really a
 comprehensive plan. I hope I can leave you with the impression that -- a
 couple of things -- one, an approach to energy security that's aggressive
 also is a good approach to environmental quality; and secondly, that such
 an approach requires a multiplicity of research projects. In other words,
 it's not going to be one cure to dependence on oil, it's going to be a
 variety of new technologies that are coming forth to do so.
     Today I signed an executive order that says we're going to commit the
 government to the following things: that we're going to purchase more
 hybrid and flexible-fuel vehicles that run on ethanol -- because we own a
 lot of cars, and therefore, it's one thing to say, this is the goal; it's
 another thing to actually participate in achieving that goal, and that's
 what we're going to do.
     Secondly, we're going to purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles as soon as
 they hit the market. I think that will give some surety to those who have
 invested in new technologies to know that the federal government is going
 to be a purchaser, when commercially available. In other words, we're not
 going to waste your taxpayers' money, but we're going to participate in a
 new market. I don't think you want us buying above market. I think you want
 us to be wise about how we spend it. (Laughter.)
     We're going to purchase -- increase our purchases of renewable power
 from new sources. We're going to reduce the gas consumption in the federal
 fleet by 20 percent over 10 years. We're going to be joining with America
 -- we set the goal; it doesn't make much sense for the federal government
 to set the goal and then not participate, and we will. And so the executive
 order commits this government to doing what I know is going to happen.
     I love being around entrepreneurs and people that dream big dreams. And
 today I understand some are out there scratching their heads, saying, you
 expect me to believe, President, that I'm going to be driving a car, the
 fuel from which has been derived from switch grass? And my answer is, yes,
 I do. That's what I believe. You know why I feel that way? Because the
 people here at DuPont feel that way. The people here at DuPont have always
 dreamed big dreams. And if you look at the history, they have followed
 through. There have been unbelievable new technologies that have come from
 the minds of the folks who work here.
     And the same thing is happening on energy. It's coming. It's coming.
 And the role of the federal government is to set high goals -- and in this
 case, mandatory fuel standards -- to say, we're dedicated, committed, and
 we're going to achieve the goal. And that way, when it's all said and done,
 when we've done our duty to serving the American people, we can look back
 and say to this next generation, we tried to leave you a little better
 world.
     And so I want to thank you for giving me a chance to come and talk
 about that better world. It's on the way. And I'm excited to be a part of
 it, and I know you are, as well.
     God bless.  (Applause.)
 
     END
 
     11:28 a.m. EST
 
 

SOURCE White House Press Office