[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 16 (Monday, April 24, 2006)]
[Pages 745-747]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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.
    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

[[Page 746]]

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 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

[[Page 747]]

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, Evironmental Protection Agency Region VI Administrator.