[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I)]
[April 20, 2006]
[Pages 758-760]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks at the President's Environmental Youth Awards Ceremony
April 20, 2006
The President. Thank you. Please be seated. Thanks for coming.
Welcome. Glad you're here. Sorry I'm a little late. I just finished
having a lunch with President Hu Jintao of China, a
very important lunch. I hope you forgive me for running a little late.
But thanks for letting us come by to say hello. I'm proud to join Steve
Johnson in honoring young Americans who
have given time and energy to help make this country a better place.
We're really glad you're here.
You're serving as young stewards of the environment, which means
you're setting a good example for what it means to be a citizen. It's,
like, what we call citizenship in action. And you're helping make
America a wonderful place. And so we're really glad you're here. I'm
glad to be a part of the award ceremony.
I want to thank all the Administrators from the EPA who are here,
but I particularly want to thank Steve
and Debbie for joining us as well. We're here
to honor, Steve, in case you don't know it yet--[laughter]--49 young
Americans who are helping to protect the natural heritage of our
country. I appreciate the fact that you're setting good examples too, by
the way, and doing what you're doing. You're showing people how to lead
and how to be a responsible citizen.
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I appreciate the rain gardens that were built in places like
Massachusetts and Michigan to catch runoff and prevent it from polluting
local rivers and streams. That's a smart idea; thanks for doing it. In
New York, folks here have organized volunteers to stencil warnings near
neighborhood sewers. That's a good way to help protect the environment,
isn't it?
In Pennsylvania, folks here built an environmental demonstration
house to showcase environmental products and technologies. It makes a
lot of sense to showcase new technologies. After all, technologies are
going to help change the world in a positive way so that we can be good
stewards of the environment.
As a matter of fact, one of the technologies that are--a part of the
technological revolution that we're pushing hard here is to change the
way we drive our automobiles. One of these days, we're going to have
what they call hybrid plug-in batteries. You'll be able to drive your
car for the first 40 miles on electricity. That seems to make sense. It
does a couple of things. One, it helps to improve the environment, but
it also makes us less dependent on oil. And one of my hopes is that one
of these days, the cars you drive won't be using any oil but will be
using hydrogen, as a way to protect the environment. So those of you who
are working on new technologies, thanks. It's a smart thing to do.
That's exactly what this Government needs to be doing more of as well,
and will be doing more of.
I'm proud to welcome folks from Georgia and your club called ``The
Creek Freaks.'' [Laughter] When I first heard the name, I thought it
might be like a band or something, you know? [Laughter] I welcome the
folks from Arkansas, who are clearing trash. By the way, the Creek
Freaks are helping to protect wetlands. I don't know if you know this,
but we've increased the wetlands by a half a million acres over 2 years.
That's a really important initiative. And for those of you who are
helping do that, I want to thank you very much.
In Arkansas you've cleared trash and developed projects to stabilize
the banks of a local stream. Thanks for coming, welcome. If you happen
to get close to Texas, tell them hello.
In Missouri, you restored a portion of a park--adjacent to a
school--to a native prairie. I don't know if you know this or not, but
Laura and I are fortunate to own some property in
central Texas, near a town called Crawford. You've heard of it,
Richard. [Laughter] One of our projects is
to restore as much of our land as possible to native grasses and
wildflowers. We've got buffalo grasses, bluestem--little bluestem grass.
And interestingly enough, we've converted about 50 to 60 acres of our
land to--so we can provide seed for people so they can then plant little
bluestem. And it's a neat project, and I would encourage ranchers and
farmers to be able to find ways to help plant native grasses, just like
the kids from Missouri have done here.
In Alaska, you built a grated wall that provides access to a local
creek. That makes sense, you know. People ought to be allowed to have
access to nature, but you want to do it in a way that protects the
environment. It's one of the reasons why I proposed that we spend $5
billion on making sure that the maintenance issues in our national parks
are improved, and we're on the way to making sure that happens. I
believe in national parks, and I believe people ought to have access to
national parks. After all, it's the people's parks; it's not a handful
of people's parks. It's everybody's park. And the Federal Government has
a role to maintain those parks, and we're doing a good job of that.
In California, 8-year-olders here launched a composting and
recycling effort called, ``The Wonderful Weird World of Worms.''
[Laughter] That's kind of hard for me to say. [Laughter]
Got some folks from Utah that built a hybrid land speed racer which
he drives
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to school and races at the nearby salt flats to raise awareness about
alternative fuel vehicles. I just talked to you about the hybrid plug-in
battery and hydrogen. There's another alternative fuel that we need to
use in our vehicles, and that's ethanol. I don't know if you study that
in your schools, but it's possible to make fuel for automobiles from
corn. As a matter of fact, we're doing quite a bit of that in the
Midwest--or sugar. Sugarcane is pretty good for making fuel--ethanol.
But we're close to some breakthroughs, some technological
breakthroughs that will enable us to make ethanol from wood chips and
compost. And when we hit that, all of a sudden, you're going to see
ethanol all across the country. It makes sense to drive our cars from
agricultural products, doesn't it, as opposed to oil?
And so thank you for setting such a good example. We're really glad
you're here. You know, good environmental policy requires Federal
effort, but it also requires State effort and local effort and volunteer
effort. All of us need to pitch in to make--to conserve the land and
make this country as beautiful as can be. And by being here today,
you're showing a strong commitment for the future of our country. And
we're blessed that we've got people like you that are willing to do what
you did.
So I want to welcome you. I want to welcome you all; I want to
welcome your teachers. Thank you for being here. Thanks for teaching. I
want to welcome your parents. I really appreciate you raising such good
folks. And I want to welcome the EPA Administrator to announce the awards. God bless; thanks for coming.
[At this point, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
Stephen L. Johnson introduced the award recipients from each region, and
the President congratulated them.]
The President. Thanks for coming. Congratulations.
Note: The President spoke at 2:59 p.m. in Room 450 of the Dwight D.
Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to
Debbie Johnson, wife of EPA Administrator Johnson; and Richard E.
Greene, Environmental Protection Agency Region VI Administrator.