    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book II)]
    [August 8, 2005]
    [Pages 1311-1315]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Energy Policy Act of 2005 in Albuquerque, New
    Mexico
    August 8, 2005

        Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks very much for the warm
    welcome. I appreciate you treating a neighbor from Texas so kindly.
    [Laughter] I'm really proud to be here with the men and women of the
    Sandia National Laboratory. We just had a fascinating tour of the
    facility. It was a little quick, but I learned a lot, and I want to
    thank Tom Hunter for his hospitality and
    his enthusiasm for the projects that go on here and his praise for the
    people who work here.
        I thank you for coming, and it's such an honor to be here. I know
    full well that the work you do here keeps our military strong, it keeps
    our Nation competitive, and our country is really grateful for your
    dedication and for the fact that you lend your expertise into helping
    Americans.
        It is such an honor to be in New Mexico, the home State of Pete
    Domenici as well as Jeff
    Bingaman, to sign this bill.
    This bill will strengthen our economy, and it will improve our
    environment, and it's going to make this country more secure. The Energy
    Policy Act of 2005 is going to help every American who drives to work,
    every family that pays a power bill, and every small-business owner
    hoping to expand.
        The bill is the result of years of effort. It is the result of good
    folks coming together, people who have made a commitment to deliver
    results for the American people. This bill launches an energy strategy
    for the 21st century, and I've really been looking forward to signing
    it.
        I appreciate Pete Domenici's leadership
    on this bill. You know, he's the kind of fellow, when he makes up his
    mind to do something, it's hard to stop him. And as Pete said he's
    worked on a lot of energy bills in the past. Some of them were signed by
    Presidents, and some of them never made it to the desk. But he's been
    dogged in his determination to get a bill done, and he found a really
    fine partner in Joe Barton.
        Joe Barton did an outstanding job as the
    chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and he did a really
    good job as the conference chairman. This bill is here in New Mexico
    because of the fine work of Joe Barton and Pete Domenici. And as Pete mentioned, Senator Jeff Bingaman gets a lot of credit as well. He knows
    the subject matter in the bill, and he's a proven leader on issues such
    as conservation and efficiency and renewable fuels and research and
    development. And Jeff, I, like Pete, I want to congratulate you for a
    job well done, and thank you for being here--[applause].
        A member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee came on over,
    Ralph Hall, a great Congressman from the State
    of Texas. Ralph is a good friend. I think he came just to grab a cup of
    coffee on Air Force One, but--[laughter]--I'm proud to have him
    alongside. Thanks for coming, Ralph, and thanks for your vote.
        I appreciate Congressman Steve Pearce from
    eastern New Mexico joining us. He and his wife, Cynthia, are with us. Thanks for coming, Steve. Appreciate
    your support on this bill. Good work. Thank you.
        I put a good fellow to run the Energy Department in Sam
    Bodman. He's smart. He's capable. He's got
    a lot of experience. He knows what he's doing. He's going to be the
    right person to help implement this bill. And I want to thank Sam and
    his wife, Diane, for being here. Thank you all
    for coming.
        I want to remind you about the fact that this economy of ours has
    been through a lot. And that's why it was important to get this energy
    bill done, to help us continue

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    to grow. We've been through a stock market decline. We went through a
    recession. We went through corporate scandals. We had an attack on our
    homeland, and we had the demands on an ongoing war on terror. And to
    grow this economy, we worked together to put together an economic growth
    policy, an economic growth package, the cornerstone of which was to cut
    the taxes on the American people. And that tax relief plan is working.
    This economy is strong, and it's growing stronger. And what this energy
    bill is going to do, it's just going to help keep momentum in the right
    direction so people can realize their dreams.
        Last week we had some good news that America added just over 200,000
    jobs--new jobs--in the month of July. Since May of 2003, we've added
    nearly 4 million new jobs. More Americans are working today than ever
    before in our Nation's history. Workers are taking more of what they
    earn--taking home more of what they earn. Inflation is low. Mortgage
    rates are low. Homeownership in America is at an alltime high. In other
    words, this economy is moving. And what this energy bill does is it
    recognizes that we need more affordable and reliable sources of energy
    in order to make sure the economy continues to grow.
        It's an economic bill, but as Pete
    mentioned, it's also a national security bill. For more than a decade,
    America has gone without a national energy policy. It's hard to believe,
    isn't it? We haven't had a strategy in place. We've had some ideas, but
    we have not had a national energy policy. And as a result, our consumers
    are paying more for the price of their gasoline. Electricity bills are
    going up. We had a massive blackout two summers ago that cost this
    country billions of dollars and disrupted millions of lives. And because
    we didn't have a national energy strategy over time, with each passing
    year, we are more dependent on foreign sources of oil.
        Now, solving these problems required a balanced approach. And that's
    the spirit that Pete and Jeff and Joe took
    into the--on to the floors of their respective bodies. They recognized
    that we need a comprehensive approach to deal with the situation we're
    in. In other words, we need to conserve more energy. We need to produce
    more energy. We need to diversify our energy supply, and we need to
    modernize our energy delivery. And so they worked hard and listened to a
    lot of good ideas, and they've taken really important steps.
        Now, one of the things that I appreciate about the people on the
    stage here is that they were able to set aside kind of the partisan
    bickering that oftentimes--too many times--deadlocks Washington, DC. In
    other words, they said, ``Let's get something done for the good of the
    country.'' And that's an important spirit. That's what the American
    people expect. I know the people in New Mexico expect people to go up to
    Washington, DC, and work together for the common good. And that's
    exactly what this bill has done.
        These Members, when they say they're going to strengthen our economy
    and protect our environment and help our national security, are telling
    it like it is. And let me tell you why. First, the bill makes an
    unprecedented commitment to energy conservation and efficiency--an
    unprecedented commitment. The bill sets higher efficiency standards for
    Federal buildings and for household products. It directs the Department
    of Transportation to study the potential for sensible improvements in
    fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks and SUVs. It authorizes
    new funding for research into cutting-edge technologies that will help
    us do more with less energy.
        The bill recognizes that America is the world's leader in technology
    and that we've got to use technology to be the world's leader in energy
    conservation. The bill includes incentives for consumers to be better
    conservers of energy. If you own a home, you can receive new tax credits
    to install energy-efficient windows and appliances. If you're in the
    market for a car,

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    this bill will help you save up to $3,500 on a fuel-efficient hybrid or
    clean-diesel vehicle. And the way the tax credit works is that the more
    efficient the vehicle is, the more money you will save. Energy
    conservation is more than a private virtue; it's a public virtue. And
    with this bill I sign today, America is taking the side of consumers who
    make the choice to conserve.
        Second, this bill will allow America to make cleaner and more
    productive use of our domestic energy resources, including coal and
    nuclear power and oil and natural gas. By using these reliable sources
    to supply more of our own energy, we'll reduce our reliance on energy
    from foreign countries, and that will help this economy grow so people
    can work.
        Coal is America's most abundant energy resource. It accounts for
    more than one-half of our electricity production. The challenge is to
    develop ways to take advantage of our coal resources while keeping our
    air clean.
        When I ran for President in 2000, I promised to invest--or asked the
    Congress to invest $2 billion over 10 years to promote clean coal
    technology. So far, working with the United States Congress, we've
    provided more than $1.3 billion for research in the innovative ways to
    improve today's coal plants and to help us build even cleaner coal
    plants in the future. And the bill I sign today authorizes new funding
    for clean coal technology so we can move closer to our goal of building
    the world's first zero emission coal-fired powerplant.
        Nuclear power is another of America's most important sources of
    electricity. Of all our Nation's energy sources, only nuclear
    powerplants can generate massive amounts of electricity without emitting
    an ounce of air pollution or greenhouse gases. And thanks to the
    advances in science and technology, nuclear plants are far safer than
    ever before. Yet America has not ordered a nuclear plant since the
    1970s. To coordinate the ordering of new plants, the bill I sign today
    continues the Nuclear Power 2010 Partnership between Government and
    industry. It also offers a new form of Federal risk insurance for the
    first six builders of new nuclear powerplants. With the practical steps
    in this bill, America is moving closer to a vital national goal. We will
    start building nuclear powerplants again by the end of this decade.
        Meeting the needs of our growing economy also means expanding our
    domestic production of oil and natural gas, which are vital fuels for
    transportation and electricity and manufacturing. The energy bill makes
    practical reforms to the oil and gas permitting process to encourage new
    exploration in environmentally sensitive ways.
        The bill authorizes research into the prospects of unlocking vast
    amounts of now--energy now trapped in shale and tar sands. It provides
    incentives for oil refineries to expand their capacity, and that's
    consumer-friendly. The more supply, the more reliable your gasoline will
    be and the more--less pressure on price.
        The bill includes tax incentives to encourage new construction of
    natural gas pipelines. It clarifies Federal authority to site new
    receiving terminals for liquified natural gas, so that consumers across
    this Nation can benefit from more affordable, clean-burning natural gas.
        Thirdly, the bill I sign today will help diversify our energy supply
    by promoting alternative and renewable energy sources. The bill extends
    tax credits for wind, biomass, landfill gas, and other renewable
    electricity sources. The bill offers new incentives to promote clean,
    renewable geothermal energy. It creates a new tax credit for residential
    solar power systems. And by developing these innovative technologies, we
    can keep the lights running while protecting the environment and using
    energy produced right here at home. When you hear us talking about less
    dependence on foreign sources of energy, one of the ways to become less
    dependent is to enhance the use of renewable sources of energy.

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        The bill also will lead to a greater diversity of fuels for cars and
    trucks. The bill includes tax incentives for producers of ethanol and
    biodiesel. The bill includes a flexible, cost-effective renewable fuel
    standard that will double the amount of ethanol and biodiesel in our
    fuel supply over the next 7 years. Using ethanol and biodiesel will
    leave our air cleaner. And every time we use a home-grown fuel,
    particularly these, we're going to be helping our farmers and, at the
    same time, be less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
        I used to like to kid, but I really wasn't kidding when I said,
    ``Some day a President is going to pick up the crop report''--
    [laughter]--``and they're going to say, we're growing a lot of corn,
    and--or soybeans--and the first thing that's going to pop in the
    President's mind is, we're less dependent on foreign sources of
    energy.'' It makes sense to promote ethanol and biodiesel.
        The bill I sign today also includes strong support for hydrogen fuel
    technology. When hydrogen is used in a fuel cell, it can power consumer
    products from computers to cell phones to cars that emit pure water
    instead of exhaust fumes. I laid out a hydrogen fuel initiative, and I
    want to thank the Members of Congress for adding to the momentum of this
    initiative through this energy bill. The goal of the research and
    development for hydrogen-powered automobiles is to make it possible for
    today's children to take their driver's test in a pollution-free car.
        Fourth, the energy bill will help ensure that consumers receive
    electricity over dependable modern infrastructure. The bill removes
    outdated obstacles to investment in electricity transmission lines in
    generating facilities. The bill corrects the provision of the law that
    made electric reliability standards optional instead of mandatory. Most
    of you probably consider it mandatory that the lights come on when you
    flip a switch. [Laughter] Now the utility companies will have to
    consider it mandatory as well. [Laughter]
        To keep local disputes from causing national problems, the bill
    gives Federal officials the authority to select sites for new
    powerlines. We have a modern interstate grid for our phone line and our
    highways. With this bill, America can start building a modern 21st
    century electricity grid as well.
        The bill I sign today is a critical first step. It's a first step
    toward a more affordable and reliable energy future for the American
    citizens. This bill is not going to solve our energy challenges
    overnight. Most of the serious problems, such as high gasoline costs or
    the rising dependence on foreign oil, have developed over decades. It's
    going to take years of focused effort to alleviate those problems. But
    in about 2 minutes, we're going to have a strategy that will help us do
    that.
        And as we work to solve our energy dependence--dependency, we've got
    to remember that the market for energy is global, and America is not the
    only large consumer of hydrocarbons. As the economies of nations like
    India and China grow rapidly, their demand for energy is growing rapidly
    as well. It's in our interest to help these expanding energy users
    become more efficient, less dependent on hydrocarbons. You see, by
    helping them achieve these goals, it will take pressure off the global
    supply, and it will help take pressure off price for American consumers.
        And so, last month, I joined with the leaders of India and China and
    Australia and Japan and South Korea to create a new Asia Pacific
    Partnership on Clean Development. This is an innovative program which is
    authorized by this energy bill. And through it, our goal is to spread
    the use of clean, efficient energy technologies throughout the Pacific
    Rim.
        After years of debate and division, Congress passed a good bill.
    It's my honor to have come to the great State of New Mexico to sign it.
    I'm confident that one day Americans will look back on this bill as a
    vital step toward a more secure and more

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    prosperous nation that is less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
        Thank you for coming.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:26 a.m. in the Schiff Auditorium at the
    Sandia National Laboratory. In his remarks, he referred to Thomas O.
    Hunter, president, Sandia Corp., and director, Sandia National
    Laboratories. H.R. 6, approved August 8, was assigned Public Law No.
    109-58.