A Plan That Addresses the Energy Equation
The following are excerpts from President Bush’s speech unveiling his energy policy in St. Paul, Minn., as transcribed by eMediaMillWorks Inc.:
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I’m deeply concerned about the impact of blackouts on the daily lives of the good people of the state of California, and my administration is committed to helping California.
We’re helping right now by expediting permits for new power production and by working as good partners to reduce our electricity at federal facilities, especially during the peak periods this summer.
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For two decades, the share of the average family budget spent on energy steadily declined. But since 1998, it has skyrocketed by 25%, and that’s a hardship for every American family.
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To protect the environment, to meet our growing energy needs, to improve our quality of life, America needs an energy plan that faces up to our energy challenges and meets them.
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The plan addresses all three key aspects of the energy equation: demand, supply and the means to match them.
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First, it reduces demand by promoting innovation and technology to make us the world leader in efficiency and conservation.
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Second, it expands and diversifies America’s supply of all sources of energy: oil and gas, clean coal, solar, wind, biomass, hydropower and other renewables, as well as safe and clean nuclear power.
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Third and finally, the report outlines the ways to bring producers and consumers together by modernizing the networks of pipes and wires that link the power plant to the outlet on the wall.
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Conservation does not mean doing without. Thanks to new technology, it can mean doing better and smarter and cheaper.
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California has been an impressive conservation leader. It is the second most energy-efficient state in the union, but California has not built a major new power plant in a decade. And not even the most admirable conservation effort could keep up with the state’s demand for electricity.
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Overdependence on any one source of energy, especially a foreign source, leaves us vulnerable to price shocks, supply interruptions and, in the worst case, blackmail.
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New technology makes drilling for oil far more productive, as well as environmentally friendly, than it was 30 or 40 years ago.
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Here is the result of one study. And I quote, “Improvements over the past 40 years have dramatically reduced industry’s footprint on the fragile tundra, minimized waste produced and protected the land for resident and migratory wildlife.”
Those aren’t my words. Those are the words of the Department of Energy study conducted during my predecessor’s administration.
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And [at] Arctic sites like [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge], we can build roads of ice that literally melt away when summer comes and the drilling then stops to protect wildlife. ANWR can produce 600,000 barrels of oil a day for the next 40 years. What difference does 600,000 barrels a day make? Well, that happens to be exactly the amount we import from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
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The major reason for dramatic increases in gasoline prices today is the lack of refining capacity, and my plan gives the needed flexibility and certainty so refiners will make the investments necessary to expand supply by increasing capacity.
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More than half of the electricity generated in America today comes from coal. If we weren’t blessed with this natural resource, we would face even greater shortages and higher prices today. Yet coal presents an environmental challenge.
So our plan funds research into new clean coal technologies.
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America should also expand a clean and unlimited source of energy, nuclear power.
