Bush Claims Renewable Energy Technologies Have Grabbed His Attention

>From Environment News Service <www.ens-newswire.com>

Emerging U.S. Renewables Grab Presidential Attention

GOLDEN, Colorado, February 22, 2006 (ENS) - President George W. Bush says he
is "fired up" about renewable energy. On a visit to the Energy Department¹s
National Renewable Energy Laboratory on Tuesday Bush mentioned but
downplayed his government's push to build nuclear power plants and turned
his attention to clean coal, ethanol, hybrid cars, wind and solar power.

"We're close to changing the way we live in an incredibly positive way," the
President said in remarks to an energy conservation and efficiency panel.
To achieve the "national goal of becoming less dependent on foreign sources
of oil," Bush said "we're not relying upon one aspect of renewable energy to
help this country become less dependent. We're talking about a variety of
fronts."

President George W. Bush addresses a gathering at the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory Tuesday. (Photo by Eric Draper courtesy The White House)
Bush said he would like to make the research and development tax credit a
permanent part of the tax code instead of continuing to require annual
reauthorization, a move that would benefit renewable energy development.
The high price of natural gas and the pressure of demand on the resource is
of concern to him, the President said.

"Natural gas is important for manufacturing, it's important for
fertilizers," he said. "But to use it for electricity is causing enormous
pressure, because we're not getting enough natural gas produced."
Repeating his call for more liquified natural gas terminals to import gas
from overseas, Bush said that to reduce the pressure on natural gas
resources the country needs to "better use coal, nuclear power, solar and
wind energy."

Bush said the American taxpayers should understand that research dollars
spent now will yield direct benefits for them in the future, such as
construction of the first zero emission coal-fired electricity plant by
2015.
"It's important that we spend money on new technologies so we can burn coal
cleanly, because we've got 250 years worth of coal reserves," the President
said. "The American taxpayers have got to know that by spending money on
this vital research, that we're going to be able to use our abundant sources
of coal in an environmentally friendly way, and help with your electricity
bills," he said.

Funding became an issue at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) earlier
this month when the lab reduced its staff by 32 people to help meet a $28
million budget shortfall. Of the 32, eight were research staff and 24 worked
in support positions. Research programs affected by the layoffs include
biomass, hydrogen and basic research.

NREL researcher Maria Ghirardi works on a novel way to use green algae to
produce hydrogen directly from water and sunlight. Hydrogen, when recombined
with oxygen in a fuel cell, produces clean energy without pollutants. (Photo
by Warren Gretz courtesy NREL)

Just in time for the President's visit, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman
transferred $5 million to Midwest Research Institute, the operating
contractor for NREL. These funds will be used to immediately restore all of
the jobs that were cut.

"The programs at NREL are critically important to realizing the President's
vision to diversify and strengthen our nation¹s energy mix," Bodman said.
The work of these employees "will bring us great innovation in renewable
energy technologies," he said.

Bodman said the Energy Department transferred the $5 million from other
accounts. The department is working with Congress to restore funds to those
accounts by taking it from "congressionally directed projects in 2001 and
2002 that have failed to make progress," he said.

President Bush¹s Fiscal Year 2007 budget request seeks a 78 percent increase
in solar energy research, a 65 percent increase in biomass research, and a
42 percent increase in hydrogen research ­ all core areas of research work
done at NREL.

At NREL on Tuesday, the President spoke little about hydrogen fuel cells,
saying only that, "It's not a short-term solution, or an intermediate-term
solution, but it's definitely a long-term solution. It will help us achieve
grand objectives, less dependence on oil, and the production of automobiles
that have zero emissions that could harm our air."

Bush expressed interest in the development of batteries that will enable an
automobile to drive the first 40 miles on electricity alone - plug-in hybrid
vehicles

John Ashworth of Biomass Partnership Development Team demonstrates the
Alternative Fuels User Facility Fermentation Pilot Plant where NREL and its
industrial partners can develop and prove biomass conversion technologies.
(Photo by Nick Nagle courtesy NREL)

"This is coming," he said, "I mean, we're close to this. It's going to
require more research dollars. The budget I submitted to the Congress does
have money in it for this type of research for new types of batteries. But I
want the people to know we're close."

Ethanol fuel has the power to shift the whole equation about energy
production "dramatically," Bush said. Most ethanol in use today is made from
corn and soy, but Bush praised NREL researchers for developing ways to
produce ethanol from other plants and plant waste.

"One of the interesting things happening in this laboratory and around the
country," he said, "is what's called the development of cellulostic ethanol.
That's a fancy word for using switchgrass, corn, wood products - stuff that
you generally allow to decompose - to become a source of energy."

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is excited about ethanol too. As Chair of
the Governor¹s Ethanol Coalition, he told the 10th Annual National Ethanol
Conference on February 9 that his job is "to get all 50 states in the nation
to E-10 as soon as possible." E-10 is a mixture of 10 percent ethanol and 90
percent gasoline.

Minnesota was the first and is still the only state in the nation to require
10 percent ethanol content in its gasoline. Pawlenty has proposed that
Minnesota go to E-20 by 2012.

Wind power eventually could generate up to one-fifth of all electricity
needed in the United States, Bush told the NREL panel, citing his technical
advisers. "They say to me that there's about six percent of the country
that's perfectly suited for wind energy, and that if the technology is
developed further, that it's possible we could generate up to 20 percent of
our electricity needs through wind and turbine," he said.

The Fossil Gulch Wind Park near Hagerman, Idaho has seven GE 1.5 MW
turbines, for a total capacity of 10.5 MW. (Photo by Stuart Van Greuningen
courtesy Idaho Energy Division)

The global wind energy sector experienced another record year in 2005,
according to figures released Friday by the Global Wind Energy Council.
Nearly a quarter of new wind generating capacity was installed in North
America, where the total capacity increased by 37 percent in 2005, gaining
momentum in both the U.S. and Canada.

The U.S. wind energy industry broke earlier annual records of installed
capacity with the installation of nearly 2,500 MW, which makes it the
country with the most new wind power.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said this record installation of
new wind power is due to the current three year window of stability in the
federal incentive for wind energy, the production tax credit.

"Thanks to the Congress¹s extending the wind energy production credit before
it expired for the first time in the credit¹s history, the wind industry is
looking forward to several recordbreaking years in a row," said AWEA's
Executive Director Randall Swisher. In previous years, he said, the wind
energy construction cycle was unstable, depending on whether the production
tax credit had been renewed in time to create investor confidence.

Solar power has a bright future for residential use, Bush told the NREL
panel. "The vision for solar is one day each home becomes a little power
unit unto itself, that photovoltaic processes will enable you to become a
little power generator, and that if you generate more power than you use,
you can feed it back into the grid."

Solar Energy Industries Association President Rhone Resch said the
President's leadership has resulted in the first solar tax credits for
homeowners in two decades which took effect January 1st.

"The President's Solar America Initiative, unveiled February 1st, proposes
the largest funding increase for solar energy research in U.S. history,"
Resch said. "By 2015, this initiative aims to make solar power
cost-competitive with conventional energy."

Resch said the national solar trade association he heads will work to extend
the solar tax credits through 2015 and "ensure that the U.S. is the global
leader in the next great high tech growth industry, solar energy."

"The U.S. faces significant challenges from other countries, such as China,
Japan, and Germany, in the race to lead the next great high-tech industry,
clean energy." Resch said.

"High natural gas prices are a wake-up call for this country to innovate,"
said Resch, "and the President has said it's time for the U.S. to develop
clean technology solutions that increase our energy independence."

President Bush told the NREL panel that dependence on foreign sources of oil
is like a hidden tax on the American people.

"I have spent a lot of time worrying about the national security
implications of being addicted to oil, particularly from parts of the world
where people may not agree with our policy or our way of life, and the
economic security implications of being hooked on oil, particularly since
the demand for oil is rising faster than the supply of oil," Bush said. "And
any time that happens it creates the conditions for what could be price
disruption and price spikes at home are like hidden taxes on the working
people of our country."