President Bush Attends Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008

March 5, 2008,THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thank you for the warm welcome. Thanks for coming. It's my honor to be here. I'm proud to address the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference. (Applause.) Thankfully, you only left it for five words. (Laughter.) I appreciate your commitment to renewable energy. I probably didn't help today when I rode over in a 20-car motorcade. (Laughter.),I appreciate the fact that -- I hope you understand that you're pioneers on the frontiers of change; that I fully suspect that this conference will seem unbelievably outdated within a decade; that people will marvel about how far technology has helped change our habits and change the world. And I hope you take great pride in being a part of this constructive change. And so thanks for coming to America. We welcome you here.,To my fellow citizens, thanks for being entrepreneurs and forward thinkers. To members of my administration, like Sam Bodman who just introduced me, or Ed Schafer, the head of the Agriculture Department, or Steve Johnson, EPA -- thank you all for serving our country. Thanks for your kind words, Sam. I appreciate all the others who are here from my administration.,Mike Eckhart is the President of the American Council on Renewable Energy -- he and I went to Harvard together. I don't know if he has had to spend time overcoming that, but I certainly have -- (laughter) -- particularly in Texas politics. But it's good to be with my friend, Mike. I can assure you that when we were at Harvard Business School together he never envisioned that we would be in our respective positions, like we are today. As a matter of fact, I know in 1975 he never even thought about the word "renewable fuel," much less "President George W. Bush." (Laughter.),I welcome the ambassadors who are here. I welcome -- listen, let me start first by telling you that America has got to change its habits. We've got to get off oil. And the reason why is, first, oil is -- dependency on oil presents a real challenge to our economy. As economies grow -- and we want all our economies to grow; we want people to be prosperous, we want people who are living in poverty to be able to grow out of poverty. We want there to be general prosperity, but as economies grow, until we change our habits, there is going to be more dependency on oil.,My job, as the President of the country, is to put pro-growth policies in place. But we're dependent upon oil, and so as our economy grows, it's going to create more demand for oil -- same with China, same with India, same with other growing countries. It should be obvious to you all that the demand is outstripping supply, which causes prices to go up. And it's making it harder here in America for working families to save, and for farmers to be prosperous, and for small businesses to grow.,The dependency upon oil also puts us at the mercy of terrorists. If there's tight supply and demand, all it requires is one terrorist disruption of oil and that price goes even higher. It's in our interests to end our dependency on oil because it -- that dependency presents a challenge to our national security. In 1985, 20 percent of America's oil came from abroad. Today that number is nearly 60 percent.,Now, all the countries we import from are friendly, stable countries; but some countries we get oil from don't particularly like us. They don't like the form of government that we embrace. They don't believe in the same freedoms we believe in, and that's a problem from a national security perspective, for the United States and any other nation that values its economic sovereignty and national sovereignty.,And finally, our dependence on fossil fuels like oil presents a challenge to our environment. When we burn fossil fuels we release greenhouse gases. The concentration of greenhouse gases has increased substantially. We recognize all three of these challenges, and we're doing something about it.,I've come today to tell you that America is the kind of country that when they see a problem, we address it head-on. I've set a great goal for our country, and that is to reduce our dependence on oil by investing in technologies that will produce abundant supplies of clean and renewable energy, and at the same time show the world that we're good stewards of the environment.,Now, look, I understand stereotypes are hard to defeat. People get an image planted in their head, and sometimes it causes them not to listen to the facts. But America is in the lead when it comes to energy independence; we're in the lead when it comes to new technologies; we're in the lead when it comes to global climate change -- and we'll stay that way. (Applause.),Overall, over the past seven years -- or since I've been the President, the federal government spent more than $12 billion to research, develop and promote alternative energy sources. Our private sector is investing a lot of money -- and I fully understand there needs to be consistent policy out of the U.S. government that has thus far provided incentives to invest. What the government doesn't need to do is send mixed signals. I understand private capital, understand how it flows. And so when people look at the United States to determine whether we're committed to new technologies that will change how we live, they not only need to look at the federal investment, but they've got to understand there's a lot of smart money heading into the private sector to help develop these new technologies.,Our strategy is twofold: One, we're going to change the way we drive our cars; and two, we'll change the way we power our businesses and homes. In other words, the two most vulnerable areas to economic disruption happens to be automobile use and electric power. The two biggest opportunities to help change the environment is through how we drive our cars and how we power our country. So first let me talk about automobiles.,I laid out a goal for the United States to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years -- that's called 20-10 [sic]. By the way, that's in the face of a growing economy -- to reduce gasoline usage by 20 percent over 10 years.,And we'll work with Congress. For those of you who watch the American legislative process, you think it's probably impossible for the American President to work with Congress these days. Well, it's not true. I was able to sign a good piece of legislation called the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. This legislation specifies a national mandatory fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, which will save billions of gallons of gasoline.,Secondly, the legislation requires fuel producers to supply at least 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel in the year 2022. In other words, these just aren't goals, these are mandatory requirements. I'm confident the United States can meet those goals, and I know we must, for the sake of economic security, national security, and for the sake of being good stewards of the environment.,Biodiesel is the most promising of these fuels. Biodiesel refineries can produce fuel from soybeans, and vegetable oils, and recycled cooking grease, from waste materials. All you out there with waste, you may be in business before you know it as this new technology kicks in. Most Americans -- or, more Americans are beginning to realize the benefits of biodiesel every year.,Last year, we produced 450 million gallons of biodiesel. That's up 80 percent from 2006. Today there are more than 650 biodiesel fueling stations in America. There are hundreds of fleet operators that use biodiesel to fuel their trucks, and that's just the beginning of what is going to be a substantial change in our driving habits.,And then there's ethanol. In the 2000 campaign I strongly supported ethanol. In 2008 it's amazing to think about how far our country has come since the year 2000. Ethanol production has quadrupled from 1.6 billion gallons in 2000 to a little over 6.4 billion gallons in 2007.,And the vast majority of that ethanol is coming from corn, and that's good. That's good if you're a corn-grower. And it's good if you're worried about national security. I'd rather have our corn farmers growing energy than relying upon some nation overseas that may not like us. That's how I view it. (Applause.),In 2005 the United States became the world's leading ethanol producer. Last year we accounted for nearly half of the worldwide ethanol production. I don't know if our fellow citizens understand that, but there is a substantial change taking place, primarily in the Midwest of our country.,Corn ethanol holds a lot of promise, but there's a lot of challenges. If you're a hog-raiser in the United States, you're beginning to worry about the cost of corn to feed your animals. I'm beginning to hear complaints from our cattlemen about the high price of corn. The high price of corn is beginning to affect the price of food.,And so we got to do something about it, and the best thing to do is not to retreat from our commitment to alternative fuels, but to spend research and development money on alternatives to ethanol made from other materials -- for example, cellulosic ethanol holds a lot of promise. I'm sure there are people in the industry here that will tell you how far the industry has come in a very quick period of time.,I look forward to the day when Texas ranchers can grow switchgrass on their country, and then have that switchgrass be converted to fuel. I look forward to the day when people in the parts of our country that have got a lot of forests are able to convert wood chips into fuel. And those days are coming. (Applause.),The Department of Energy had dedicated nearly $1 billion to develop technologies that can make cellulosic ethanol cost competitive. And the interesting thing that's happened in a relatively quick period of time is that the projected cost of cellulosic ethanol has dropped by more than 60 percent. In other words, new technologies are coming. The job of the federal government is to expedite their arrival.,Expanding use in ethanol and biodiesel requires getting more cars on the road that use these alternative fuels. We expect the private sector to respond. Our consumers are going to demand flex-fuel vehicles when they find out that these new technologies are available. As a matter of fact, there's 5 million flex-fuel vehicles on our roads now. I just saw some new ones here. Amazing joint venture with Mack and Volvo on these giant trucks that are using biodiesel to power them. I said, can you make it more than a couple of miles? The man said, not only we can make it more than a couple of miles, we can accelerate out of danger if we need to.,Technology is changing. Five years ago those trucks would not have been available for people at this exhibit to look at. Today they're on the road. As a matter of fact, the United States Air Force is using these kinds of trucks. Things are changing.,Another way to reduce our dependence on oil is promote hybrid vehicles. We're providing tax incentives to people to buy these fuel-efficient vehicles. In other words, the government is saying if you buy one, we'll give you a little incentive to do so. I've supported those policies. I think it makes sense to create a consumerism for these kinds of vehicles.,When I was first elected, there were virtually no hybrids on the roads. Today there is nearly a million. We're also investing in plug-in hybrids. We want our city people driving not on gasoline but on electricity. And the goal, the short-term goal, is to have vehicles that are capable of driving the first 40 miles on electricity -- vehicles that don't look like a golf cart, by the way; vehicles that meet consumer demand. And that day is coming. The battery technologies are amazing, and the United States is investing millions of dollars to hasten the day. The battery technology is more efficient and competitive.,This administration is a strong supporter of hydrogen. We spent about $1.2 billion in research and development to bring vehicles running on hydrogen to the market. A lot of people don't even know what I'm talking about when I'm talking about hydrogen. But the waste product of a hydrogen-powered vehicle is pure and clean water.,This is an amazing opportunity for us. Now, this will be a long-term opportunity, compared to ethanol and biodiesel and plug-in hybrids, but it makes sense to invest now and work on the technology so that when it becomes cost-competitive, it's available. We're also working for the day when, you know, these new fuels power not only automobiles and trucks but airplanes.,In December, the United States Air Force flew a C-17 -- that's a huge airplane -- from Washington state to New Jersey. For those of you who don't live in America, that is a long way. (Laughter.) And they did so on a blend of regular and synthetic fuels. I was interested to see that Virgin Atlantic flew a 747 from London's Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam, fueled partly by coconuts and Brazilian babassu nuts. I've never seen a babassu nut, but it's amazing that it helped power an airplane the size of a 747. (Applause.),What I've just described to you is the beginning of a new era. And -- oh, it's probably hard to equate it to the Model T, but maybe we're not that far off. And the United States believes it's in our interests to promote this new era.