January 31, 2006

EMBARGOED UNTIL 9 P.M.

"This is a sharp departure from past speeches. Traditionalists may be disappointed that oil and gas weren’t the centerpieces of his energy remarks, but the President is absolutely right to map out an expanded strategy in alternative energy. He builds on the energy bill by doubling the investment in biorefinery research. That’s a smart move. If we can figure out how to affordably refine ethanol from cellulosic biomass, particularly without using a lot of heat, we solve our oil problem and our oil refinery problem. We aren’t going to displace foreign oil next year, but the President’s moving us the right direction and he’s picked up the pace. The President recognizes that ingenuity and technology are our best answer to the voracious global appetite for carbon fuels. However, in order to achieve his goal of reducing our reliance on Middle East oil by 75 percent in the next 20 years, I do think we have to focus our ingenuity on extracting oil from our own abundant resources such as oil shale. A push into oil shale research can complement our alternative fuel research and make the President’s goal a reality.

"The President matches his initiatives in transportation fuel with an emphasis on new nuclear power, clean coal, solar and wind energies. I am particularly pleased at his call for more nuclear power. Since passage of the energy bill last summer, 9 utilities have announced they will likely file necessary permits to build as many as 19 new nuclear reactors. If all these plants are built, that’s more than 25,000 Megawatts of new electricity. The EIA says we’ll need 50,000 Megawatts of new electricity by 2050. We can’t get there without new nuclear power and a lot of it."

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