[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 41 (Monday, October 16, 2006)]
[Pages 1802-1808]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the National Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis, 
Missouri

October 12, 2006

    The President. Thanks for the warm welcome. I appreciate the chance 
to come and speak to the Renewable Energy Conference. I hope you're 
excited about being here, because I sure am. This is--it's exciting to 
be with--[applause]. I view this as kind of a meeting of pioneers, 
people who are on the leading edge of change, and people whose research, 
thought, and production will all help this country become stronger and 
better. And so I appreciate you giving me a chance to come by and visit 
with you.
    This is a--energy is a subject dear to my heart--as it should be for 
any President--because you can't grow your economy without energy. And 
yet it is apparent, and should be for most Americans, we've got to 
change our habits if we want to remain the economic leader of the world.
    Before I share some of my thoughts with you, I do want to recognize 
members of my Cabinet who have joined you: The Secretary of Agriculture, 
Mike Johanns; the Secretary of Energy, Sam Bodman; and the Administrator 
of the EPA, Steve Johnson.
    I think it is interesting that when we--we got an energy conference 
going on here, that we have the Secretary of Energy, which makes sense--
[laughter]--but the Secretary of Agriculture as well. And the man who 
runs the EPA, whose job it is to make sure our environment is clean, is 
with us. And the reason I find that interesting is because we've got an 
interesting confluence of national security concerns and environmental 
concerns that come together, probably unlike any other time in our 
history. And I want to share some thoughts with you about that in a 
minute.
    I do want to thank the United States Senators from the State of 
Missouri--both men believe strongly in the future of renewable energy--
and that would be Kit Bond and Jim Talent. Thank you for coming. I 
appreciate Congressman Todd Akin being here, and his wife, Lulli.
    You know, I--gasoline prices are down, and that's good news. 
[Applause] Yes. I mean

[[Page 1803]]

everybody in America ought to be applauding. [Laughter] It's like--if 
you're driving a truck for a living, it helps you. If you're trying to 
put food on the table and you got to drive to work, it helps you. If 
you're a small-business owner, it means you've got more capital to 
invest when the price of gasoline goes down.
    My worry is, however, that a low price of gasoline will make it 
complacent--make us complacent about our future when it comes to energy, 
because I fully understand that energy is going to help determine 
whether or not this Nation remains the economic leader in the world. 
We're doing fine now. We've got a really strong economy, and in order to 
make sure it's strong tomorrow, we need to make sure we work on how we 
use energy.
    Energy is--look, let me just put it bluntly: We're too dependent on 
oil. [Applause] And see, low gasoline prices may mask that concern. So, 
first, I want to tell you that I welcome the low gasoline prices; 
however it's not going to dim my enthusiasm for making sure we diversify 
away from oil.
    We need to diversify away from oil for economic reasons. We live in 
a global world. When the demand for oil goes up in China or in India, it 
causes the price of crude oil to rise, and since we import about 60 
percent of the crude oil we use, it causes our price to go up as well, 
which means the economy becomes less competitive.
    And then, of course, there's the national security concern for oil. 
Why? Well, we get oil from some countries who don't particularly care 
for us. They don't like what we stand for. They don't like it when we 
say, ``For the sake of peace, let us work in a way that we don't develop 
nuclear weapons,'' for example.
    I spend a lot of time on national security issues, which you expect 
your President to do. And a lot of times those national security issues 
are involved with countries that have oil. They have something we want, 
and so there's a national security issue when it comes to the status 
quo.
    And then, of course, we have a great debate about the environment in 
America, and that's good. It's an important debate. We all want to be 
good stewards of our environment. We want to be good conservationists. 
And reliance upon oil and hydrocarbons has created some challenges when 
it comes to the environment.
    And so this is one of the reasons why I believe so strongly that 
this country has got to use its talent and its wealth to get us off oil. 
And I believe we will do so, and I believe--I know the best way to do so 
is through technological breakthroughs.
    And the Government has got a role to play. First, I understand there 
are some entrepreneurs here, some people that are investors, venture 
capitalists, and I welcome you here. I think it's a good sign for those 
of us who understand the need to diversify away from oil that private 
money is beginning to make investments into some of the technologies I'm 
going to be describing.
    And we can help you in Washington, and one way we can help you is to 
reward people for investing in research and development. There's a 
research and development tax credit that's on the books. The problem is, 
it expires every year, on a year-by-year basis, which means you've got 
to come back to Congress on a year-to-year basis; which also means 
there's unpredictability in the Tax Code, and that's not wise, if you're 
trying to encourage people to invest dollars in the long term. And so in 
order to encourage private initiative and private investment in new 
energies, we ought to make the research and development tax credit a 
permanent part of the Tax Code.
    And we need to continue what we're doing at the Federal level, which 
is spend your money on research. I think it's a legitimate use of 
taxpayers' money, to spend on grants, to find new ways to power our 
economy, new ways to conserve, new ways to protect the environment 
through new technologies.
    Since I've been President, we've spent about $10 billion on 
research. A lot of it goes through Sam's shop. He's the Energy man. 
[Laughter] We will vigorously pursue new ways to power our automobiles. 
If you want to get off oil, the surest and quickest way to do so is to 
change how we power our automobiles. We consume a lot of oil through 
gasoline. And the more inefficient our cars are, the more we drive old 
clunkers, the more gasoline we use, which means we're more dependent on 
oil.

[[Page 1804]]

    And so we've got some interesting initiatives at the Federal level 
to help change habits. One of them is, and it's probably the fastest way 
we can begin to change the consumer habits, is to promote hybrid 
vehicles. You all know what hybrids are, it's a combination of gas and--
gasoline and electric battery that gets the driver a lot more miles per 
gallon.
    And so one way to do this--one way to encourage people to buy 
hybrids, one way to stimulate demand so that the production will 
follow--is to provide tax credits. You can get up to, now, $3,400 tax 
credit when you buy your hybrid automobile. In other words, the 
Government is using the Tax Code to stimulate demand, which then should 
stimulate more automobile--more production on the auto lines of hybrids. 
And the more hybrids we get on the road, the less oil we're going to be 
using.
    Secondly, we're spending money on new battery technologies. See, we 
envision a day in which light and powerful batteries will become 
available in the marketplace so that you can drive the first 40 miles on 
electricity, on batteries, and your car won't have to look like a golf 
cart. [Laughter] In other words, it will be a technology that will meet 
consumer demand and, at the same time, meet a national need, which is 
less consumption of gasoline. These are called plug-in hybrid vehicles.
    And the battery technology is coming. In order to expedite it, Sam's 
shop, the Department of Energy, is putting out grants. In other words, 
we're using your money to expedite the arrival of a new technology that 
will enable folks to drive the first 40 miles on electricity.
    That's not going to help rural Missouri or rural Texas, but it's 
certainly going to help those who live in the cities. Most folks in the 
cities don't drive more than 40 miles, so you can envision consumer 
habits beginning to change: You drive to work; you go home; you plug in 
your automobile. And you go--ride to work and go home the next day--and 
you're still on electricity. It's going to change the consumption 
patterns. This new technology will change the consumption patterns on 
gasoline, which in turn will make us less dependent on crude oil, which 
meets a national security concern, an economic security concern, and 
helps us deal with an environmental concern.
    Now, there's another technology that will enable us to help change 
our driving habits, and that's ethanol. See, I like the idea of 
promoting a fuel that relies upon our farmers. I happen to believe a 
good farm economy is important to a good national economy, and I also 
know it makes sense to have our--[applause]. Sounds like we might have 
some farmers here. [Laughter]
    But I also know it makes sense to have our farmers growing the 
feedstock for new energy. The way I like to tell our citizens is, 
Johanns is going to come in someday and say, ``Mr. President, corn is 
up, which means we're less dependent on oil.'' And that's good news for 
the country and good news for our economy.
    People are using ethanol. For those of you who are in the ethanol 
business, you're on the leading edge of change. It's coming, and 
Government can help. That's why we enhanced and extended the 10-cent-
per-gallon tax credit. We did that to stimulate production. We've 
extended a 51-cent-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol blenders. We 
provided a 30-percent tax credit for the installation of alternative 
fuel stations, up to $30,000 a year.
    In other words, I believe and Congress agrees that the proper use of 
tax credits will help stimulate a new industry that will help our 
economy and help us when it comes to national security. You know, we're 
up to now 5 billion gallons of ethanol sold this year. That's up from 
1.6 billion gallons in 2000. Ethanol--there are now 100 ethanol 
refineries which are operating. There--it's anticipated there are going 
to be 40 more next year. In other words, we're just at the beginning 
stages of a new industry that is evolving. It's one of the reasons I'm 
excited to be here. For those of you on the cutting edge, I want to 
thank you and just let you know we want you to succeed. It's in our 
interests that you do succeed.
    Today, there are 900 stations selling E-85. For those of you who 
don't know what that means, that's 85 percent ethanol. Look, a lot of 
Americans wonder whether or not this is feasible, what I'm talking 
about. A lot of folks aren't exposed to ethanol yet. In the Midwest you 
are; you've got a lot of corn. And it makes

[[Page 1805]]

a lot of sense to have these plants where the feedstocks are. But 
ethanol is coming, and it doesn't require much money to convert a 
regular gasoline-driven car to a flex-fuel automobile. See, the 
technology is available. It takes about a hundred and something dollars 
to change a gasoline-only automobile to one that can use E-85. And it 
works.
    And in my judgment, the thing that's preventing ethanol from 
becoming more widespread across the country is the lack of other types 
of feedstocks that are required to make ethanol--sugar works; corn 
works--and it seems like it makes sense to spend money, your money, on 
researching cellulosic ethanol, so that we could use wood chips or 
switch grass or other natural materials.
    And we've got an aggressive effort to research new raw materials to 
be used in ethanol. When I was down in Alabama--I'm going to tell you an 
interesting story when I was down there the other day. But I talked to a 
fellow from Auburn, he's a Ph.D.--just reminded me the difference 
between a Ph.D. and a C student; the C student is the President, and the 
Ph.D. is the adviser. [Laughter]
    But he's telling me how optimistic he is that someday we're going to 
be able to take wood chips from those southern pine forests and convert 
that raw material into ethanol. He said it's right around the corner as 
far as he's concerned. It makes a lot of sense for the Federal 
Government to continue to invest taxpayers' money, because the more 
different raw materials that are practical in use, the more ethanol 
production facilities will spread around the country. And the more 
spread around--the more production there is, the more likely it is that 
the entire industry will evolve quicker.
    So you've got a lot of plants here in the Midwest. The vision has 
got to be for these plants to be able to spread throughout the entire 
country. And when it does, ethanol will become a primary source for the 
fuel people use, which will help us meet our national security and 
economic concerns and objectives.
    The Department of Energy announced $250 million in funding to 
establish and operate two new bioenergy research center, all aimed at 
accelerating basic research into cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. 
I suspect we've got some soybean growers here. I know you've got some in 
Missouri. I have been to a biodiesel plant in Virginia. And it doesn't 
take much capital investment to refine biodiesel from soy, soybeans; it 
just doesn't. Biodiesel is coming. It makes a lot of sense for us to 
continue to invest in biodiesel technologies to make the production 
process even more efficient. I have seen biodiesel poured into a new 
truck and watched that truck crank right up, and realize it emitted no 
emissions. I know, because I put a handkerchief over the stack. 
[Laughter]
    These are exciting times, and people are beginning to take advantage 
of them. I told you I was down in Alabama. I went to the Hoover Police 
Department. They're using E-85. Their people on the beat are filling up 
their cars with E-85. I asked a guy, one of the policemen--I said, ``Why 
do you use it?'' He said, ``First of all, I like the fact that it keeps 
the environment clean''--that's a good reason. He said, ``By the way, 
when you fill it up with the 85, it gives you better get-up-and-go.'' 
[Laughter] In other words, it works. That's a good sign when police 
departments begin to use E-85.
    I was over at a FedEx place, and they've got what they call the 
OptiFleet E700--it's a new vehicle, all aimed at reducing emissions by 
96 percent. In other words, people are thinking differently now. There's 
a whole new industry beginning to evolve. Users are beginning to 
understand the benefits of using ethanol or biodiesel. And these are 
exciting times.
    And the Federal Government's job is to continue to research so that 
we provide our consumers, the American people, with more options. And 
one of the great options that's coming down the road is hydrogen. That's 
a longer term project. If you notice, I kind of talk about hybrids that 
are on the road today and how we stimulate demand, hybrids that are 
coming with new batteries, ethanol which is now evolving into a 
significant industry. Ultimately, in my judgment, one of the ways to 
make sure that we become fully less dependent on oil is through 
hydrogen. And we're spending $1.2 billion to encourage hydrogen fuel 
cells. It's coming; it's coming. It's an interesting industry evolution, 
to think about your automobiles being powered by

[[Page 1806]]

hydrogen, and the only emission is water vapor.
    Oh, I'm sure there are some people out there saying, ``Well, you 
know, he's just dreaming.'' Well, I'm just listening to the dreamers who 
happen to be good, smart, capable people who know what they're talking 
about----
    Audience member. Out of Iraq now! Out of Iraq now! Soldiers are not 
renewables!
    The President. Since 2003, my administration has made hydrogen and 
fuel-cell technology a priority----

[At this point, there was a disruption in the audience.]

    The President. ----and we will continue to research to make sure 
America is less dependent on foreign sources of oil.
    As you can tell, I'm excited about new technologies. But I think 
we've got to be realistic about the timing. And in order to become less 
dependent on foreign sources of oil, we've got to explore for oil and 
gas in our own hemisphere in environmentally friendly ways. And one of 
the interesting technological developments is the capacity to find oil 
in unique places. I don't know if you followed recently the exploration 
in the Gulf of Mexico, where there was a well that was drilled five 
miles in depth in thousands of feet of water.
    In other words, these new technologies enable us to go to new 
places, and they enable us to be wise stewards of the environment. I 
understand there's a big debate about whether or not you can explore for 
oil and gas and protect the environment. I believe you can. And I 
understand that as we transition to the ethanol era, we must also--or 
the hydrogen area, we must also find oil and gas in our own hemisphere 
if the objective is to become less dependent on foreign oil.
    They estimate that the new discovery in the deep Gulf of Mexico 
could increase our reserves from 10 to 50 percent. In other words, this 
is a big deal. And Congress is debating an energy bill. They passed a 
good energy bill, by the way, in the past, that encourages conservation 
and encourages a lot of the research that I was talking about, 
understands we've got to diversify away from our current structure. But 
there's another bill out there, and they need to get the work done. They 
need to come together between the House and the Senate version to 
encourage exploration in the Gulf of Mexico in new areas to make sure 
that we transition to a new day when it comes to energy.
    And I believe that States ought to share in the royalties because I 
know, in the State of Louisiana, for example, they have committed their 
share of new royalties in this new exploration to help protect their 
coastline. And I believe Congress needs to get the bill to my desk as 
quick as possible. So when you finish the elections, get back and let me 
sign this bill so the American people know that we're serious about 
getting off foreign oil.
    And that's going to be important because we can find a lot of 
natural gas offshore, for example, and we need natural gas in order to 
make sure we meet our second objective, and that's how we protect the 
environment and power our society.
    I don't know if you know this or not, but electricity is generated 
from natural gas, about 18 percent; coal, 50 percent; nuclear power, 20 
percent; and then solar and wind. And the fundamental question is, can 
the Federal Government help make sure that we have energy so we can 
power our economy, protect the environment, and grow? And the answer is, 
we can, and we can spend money to help you.
    One thing we don't need to spend money on but need to do is permit 
more liquefied natural gas terminals. LNG is a new technology that is--
it's not that new, but it's evolving technology. It means you can get--
buy natural gas from overseas in liquefied form and deliquefy it. 
There's a lot of natural gas in the world, and it makes sense for us to 
be in a position to receive that natural gas in order to make sure 
you've got energy in your home.
    A shortage of natural gas causes your electricity bills to go up. 
Supply of natural gas, increased supply, makes it more likely that 
you're going to have rational bills, more likely the economy will 
continue to grow. And natural gas protects the environment.
    Secondly, on coal, we got a lot of coal. We got 250 years of coal. 
That's a lot, and yet

[[Page 1807]]

coal presents us with an environmental challenge. And so we're spending 
quite a bit of money here at the Federal level to come up with clean-
coal technologies. If you want to be less dependent on foreign sources 
of energy, it seems like it makes sense to me that we use the energies 
we have here at home and do so in environmentally friendly ways.
    We're spending $2 billion to promote technologies that will enable 
our coal-fired plants to protect the environment. As a matter of fact, 
we got what's called a FutureGen Initiative. By the year 2012, we'll 
build the first clean-coal powerplant that will remove virtually all 
pollutants and greenhouse gases from burning coal. In other words, 
there's a way coming that's going to enable us to use this plentiful 
resource.
    A controversial subject is nuclear power. You might remember, we've 
had a time in our country where people liked nuclear power, thought it 
was a strong solution to energy independence, and then we just shut her 
down because of engineering concerns. I strongly believe that if we want 
to keep this country competitive, if we want to make sure we can compete 
globally, we must promote civilian nuclear power. We must have more 
energy coming from nuclear power.
    Nuclear power is renewable, and there are no greenhouse gases 
associated with nuclear power. One of the problems we've had is that 
nobody wants to build any plants. They're afraid of the costs of 
regulation and the litigious nature that surrounds the construction of 
nuclear powerplants--litigious problems surrounding the construction of 
the nuclear powerplants.
    And so, in the energy bill that I signed, the Congress wisely 
provided incentives and risk insurance for nuclear powerplant 
construction. Last year only three companies were seeking to build 
powerplants--nuclear powerplants. Today, 14 have expressed new interest 
in construction. In other words, there's a new industry beginning to 
come back.
    I think it's very important for us to spend dollars on how to best 
deal with the waste, in other words, research new ways to be able to 
assure the American people that we'll be able to deal with the nuclear 
waste in a smart way. And that's why we're teaming up with France and 
Japan and Russia to spend money--$250 million from the United States' 
perspective, and they're matching it--on what's called the Global 
Nuclear Energy Partnership, all designed to research reprocessing and 
fast-burner reactors.
    The idea is to take the nuclear industry, take the spent fuel, 
reprocess it, put it into a fast-burner reactor, which will yield about 
90 percent less of the waste than under the current system. What I'm 
telling you is, is that the engineering is much safer today than it has 
been in the past, and we're spending money to make sure that we can deal 
with the waste in a sane way, so that we can with confidence say to the 
American people, now is the time to accelerate the expansion of nuclear 
power, for the sake of national and economic security.
    I believe that with the proper amount of research, whether it be 
public or private, we will have solar roofs that will enable the 
American family to be able to generate their own electricity. And it's 
coming.
    I believe wind power has got the opportunity to help. All we need is 
to put a couple of windmills right there in Washington, DC, and we'll 
be--[laughter]--less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
    What I'm talking about is a comprehensive approach to solving a 
national issue, which is dependence on oil, and how best to protect this 
environment. You know, it's time to get rid of the old, stale debates on 
the environment and recognize new technologies are going to enable us to 
achieve a lot of objectives at the same time.
    Technology will enable us to be able to say we can grow our economy 
and protect our environment at the same time. It's not a zero-sum game 
anymore. These technological breakthroughs are going to say to our 
farmers, ``You're energy producers.'' And that's good for America. It's 
going to say to those entrepreneurs that are risk-takers, this is a good 
place to try to make a good return on capital.
    There's a lot of smart money in the United States going into energy 
diversification and to research. And for those of you here, thanks. I 
hope you make a good return. I think you will. There is no question in 
my mind that we're on the verge of significant

[[Page 1808]]

breakthroughs, and so what I wanted to come and tell you is, one, thanks 
for your interest; thanks for showing up at a conference like this. 
You're the beginning of what's going to be a new environmental debate, 
an economy based upon new technologies, a new way to power our 
automobiles, and a way that says by making good decisions now and 
researching now, we'll leave behind a better world for our children.
    Someday, some--the 56th President will be standing up here saying, I 
appreciate the fact that there was some pioneers back in America in 
those days; I can't spent too much time because I've got to go get my 
limousine filled up by hydrogen--[laughter]--but I appreciate the fact 
that the solar panels are working so you can see me. [Laughter] In other 
words, it's coming, and I'm excited to be a part of it. And I hope 
you're excited as well.
    Thanks for letting me come by. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 12:29 p.m. at the St. Louis Convention 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to David Bransby, professor of 
agronomy and soil, Auburn University.