    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
    [September 28, 2006]
    [Pages 1712-1713]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Energy in Hoover, Alabama
    September 28, 2006

        You know, the price of gasoline has been dropping, and that's good
    news for the American consumer, it's good news for the small-business
    owners, it's good news for the farmers. But it's very important for us
    to remember that we still have an issue when it comes to dependence on
    foreign oil. And one way to become less dependent on foreign oil is for
    us to develop new ways to power our automobiles right here in America.
        And so I've come to Hoover, Alabama, to recognize this city for
    being innovative and progressive and for having a good football team.
    [Laughter] I want to thank Mayor Tony Petelos
    and the city council for serving and leading. See, what we have just
    witnessed is a police force that is filling up its vehicles with a fuel
    called E-85. When you hear somebody talk about fuel E-85, that means 85
    percent of the fuel comes from ethanol. And ethanol is produced from
    corn, and corn is grown right here in the United States of America.
        One way to become less dependent on foreign oil is to use American-
    grown products to power our automobiles. And that's what we just
    witnessed. So I asked Officer Parker of the
    Hoover Police Department, I said, ``Do you like using E-85?'' See, he
    has a choice, because there are what we call flex-fuel vehicles. He can
    either use ethanol-based fuel or regular gasoline. As a matter of fact,
    there's a lot of cars in the United States that are flex fuel, and some
    of you probably don't even know you've got a car that's flex fuel. It
    doesn't cost much money, by the way, to convert a regular automobile, an
    automobile that uses gasoline, to a flex-fuel car.
        So anyway, so I said to Officer Parker, I
    said, first, I told him thanks for serving. And then I said, ``You've
    got a choice, don't you, between gasoline and E-85?'' He said, ``I do.''
    I said, ``Which one do you pick?'' He said, ``E-85.'' I said, ``Why?''
    He said, ``Because it's got a little better get up to it.'' In other
    words, it works just fine.
        And it works just fine for other reasons as well. It works just fine
    because it helps keep our air clean. It works just fine because it helps
    address a national security issue. So one of the important policies of
    governments ought to be to encourage the production and use of ethanol.
    And there's a Federal role for that. In other words, we provide tax
    credits. We think it's in our national interest that ethanol penetrate
    more market--in other words, more people use ethanol.

    [[Page 1713]]

        We're providing research dollars, and one reason you provide
    research dollars is because it's going to be important for us to use
    something beyond corn to make ethanol. In other words, corn is good, and
    so is sugar, but you can imagine, it's going to put a little strain on
    the corn market after a while if the only raw material we use for
    ethanol is corn. After all, you've got to feed the cows and feed the
    hogs and feed people as well as feed automobiles with fuel.
        And so the Federal Government has committed to spending a fair
    amount of your money to research other ways to make ethanol. And one
    such place where good research is going on is right here in the State of
    Alabama at Auburn University.
        And I just had the honor of meeting a professor who came here from South Africa and is now one of the
    eminent scholars there at Auburn, who spends his time developing new
    ways to make ethanol. See, what's happening here in America is, is that
    we have made it a focused effort of our Government to diversify our
    fuel, and we're spending your money to do it.
        The doc was telling me that one of these
    days, we could be using switchgrass to be making ethanol. That's pretty
    good news for people. You know, if that ever becomes a reality, there's
    going to be a lot of switchgrass growers.
        He was talking to me about how they're
    spending time and money figuring out whether or not we can use wood
    products to make ethanol. Imagine if we can achieve a technological
    breakthrough that enables us to use wood chips. You got a lot of wood
    here in Alabama. You'll become one of the leading ethanol producers if--
    when we achieve that breakthrough. And that's good news for America.
        I like the idea of a President or a Governor saying, ``You know
    something, there's a lot of corn, and we're less dependent on oil from
    overseas,'' or, ``We've got some new breakthroughs, which makes us less
    dependent on oil.'' And the good news is, this technology also helps us
    be good stewards of the environment.
        And so I want to thank the good folks from Hoover, Alabama, for
    thinking differently, for being on the leading edge of change. I
    appreciate the mayor and the city council for
    thinking about how best to represent your people, and you're making a
    fine contribution to our country as well.
        It's an honor to be here. I'm thrilled to see this E-85 plant
    operating right here in the State of Alabama. I predict there are more
    coming, and when more come, this country is going to be better off.
        Thanks for having me, and God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:06 p.m. at the Hoover Public Safety
    Center. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Tony Petelos of Hoover, AL;
    Reggie Parker, officer, Hoover Police Department; and David Bransby,
    professor of agronomy and soil, Auburn University. The Office of the
    Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these
    remarks.