Bush defends his advocacy of ethanol as an energy source

President Bush today defended his emphasis on ethanol to help the nation meet its energy needs, even as food prices rise, saying transportation costs and other factors were driving up grocery bills as well as demand for the renewable fuel.

On the day the government announced the nation had lost 20,000 payroll jobs in April – and that unemployment had dropped from 5.1% to 5.0% – the president said he recognized that the nation was facing a difficult period, “but this economy is going to come home.”

During a 20-minute speech and then a rare, lengthy question-and-answer session with employees of a high-tech manufacturer, Bush chastised Congress for blocking his efforts to open Alaska lands and coastal waters to oil and gas exploration and drilling.

He also pressed Congress to approve the stalled free trade agreement with Colombia and his proposal to overhaul the government’s mortgage program.

But he also shifted easily into a reflective mien as his final term nears its end, saying to a worker in Dallas with whom he was conversing in a demonstration of a computer videoconferencing system: “Tell everybody down there, in about 10 months, I’m coming home.”

With that end in sight, the president’s remarks brought into focus the newly troubling issues he faces: the struggling economy, energy costs and, now, suddenly rising food prices.

The president for several years has been promoting the use of ethanol – which is largely made from corn – to alleviate the nation’s shortage of domestically produced energy.

Critics have focused on the new demand for corn as a factor in driving up food prices.

“As you know, I’m an ethanol person,” Bush said, in response to a question about food prices in the United States and around the world. “It makes sense for America to be growing energy.”

He said that multiple factors played into higher food prices and listed increased energy costs – which affect transportation and fertilizer prices – drought and other weather-related problems, and increased demand stemming from greater prosperity in once-poor nations. He noted that the middle class in India has grown to 350 million – just one segment of the population that is greater than that of the entire United States.

“There are a lot of reasons the price of food is high,” he said.

“No question ethanol is a part of it,” he said, but he added that it was not the main reason for the increase.

Acknowledging the four-month downward employment trend, after 52 months of job expansion, Bush said that today’s report was “a sign that the economy is not as robust as any of us would like.”

But, he said, the economic stimulus program, which is just now sending checks and electronic payments to taxpayers, “hasn’t really kicked in yet.”

The president, who appeared to be surprised two months ago when a reporter said that gasoline appeared headed for $4 a gallon, said, “I know you have to pay more at the fuel pump than you want.”

Blaming Congress for blocking efforts to expand U.S. oil and gas production, by allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for example, he said the nation needed to move away from “an energy policy that prohibits America from finding oil on its own land.”

“If Congress is truly interested in helping relieve the price of gasoline, they would recognize” that the country needed to drill for oil and gas in areas that have been off-limits largely for environmental reasons, and would encourage the construction of oil refineries.

Bush spoke at World Wide Technology Inc., which he had planned to visit in October. He postponed the visit when he flew instead to Southern California to view damage from wildfires.

The company, which is on the outskirts of St. Louis, was started in 1990. It provides information technology to the government and private industry, particularly in the telecommunications field.

In 2006, according to the White House, it became the first minority-owned company with sales greater than $2 billion, and reported sales of more than $2.5 billion last year. In seven years it has added more than 500 employees.

From Missouri, Bush headed to a weekend at his Texas home, where next weekend his daughter Jenna is getting married.

“I got a lot on my mind, by the way,” he said as he finished the speech and invited questions. “Getting ready to march down the aisle.”

As for the approaching end of his presidency, he said that having lived in the White House seven and a half years, he found that “the furniture is interesting, but it is like a museum.”

“It’s been a fabulous experience,” he said – and singled out welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the White House last month – but, he added: “I guess I’ll go home and mow the lawn.”

james.gerstenzang@latimes.com