[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 39 (Monday, October 2, 2006)]
[Pages 1679-1680]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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

[[Page 1680]]

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.
    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 
switch grass 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 
switch-grass 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.