George W. Bush

“ 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. ”

“ An effective agreement is one that recognizes that economies got to grow in order to be able to afford investment in the first place; that you must have economic wealth in order to be able to afford the research and development.
This is an issue that requires substantial commitments of money, and it's hard to commit money if you don't have any. And it's hard to commit money if your economies are hurting. So we ought to make sure we grow our economies and at the same time have the money necessary to invest. And I fully understand some nations are incapable of affording these new technologies. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When I was the governor of Texas, I signed a electric deregulation bill that encouraged and mandated the use of renewable energy. Today, Texas produces more wind energy than any other state in the Union. If an oil state can produce wind energy, other states in America can produce wind energy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I believe developing nations ought to be encouraged to use nuclear power. I believe it's in our interests, I believe it will help take pressure off the price of oil, and I know it's going to help protect the environment. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And if people are truly interested in solving the problem, if you're interested in expanding alternative energy, then we need to come together to eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers to enable clean technologies to move duty-free around the world. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Last year we invested more than $300 million in nuclear energy technologies. We want our people to understand that this generation of nuclear power plants is safe. We want people to feel comfortable about the expansion of nuclear power. ”

“ There's regulatory uncertainty when it comes to permitting plants in the United States. You can't expect somebody to invest a lot of money and have the regulatory process at the very end stop that capital from being deployed. ”

“ Oh, I know there's doubters, but I'm confident that when we look back at this period of time, they will say, how could you have doubted the capacity of mankind to develop the technologies necessary to deal with the real problems of the 21st century? ”

“ And so the United States of America has got a strategy to help change our electricity mix here at home. And part of that strategy is on nuclear power. Another part of that strategy is based upon wind power. Now, since 2001, America has increased wind energy production by more than 300 percent. This is a new industry for us, and it's beginning to grow. More than 20 percent of new electrical generating capacity added in America came from wind last year. ”

“ And so we're working with other nations, like Japan and France and Great Britain and Russia and China, to form this energy partnership, the purpose of which is to help developing nations secure cost-effective and proliferation-resistant nuclear power, and at the same time to conduct joint research on how to deal with the nuclear waste issue, through positive, productive reprocessing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The first step is to get the major economies to agree to a goal. If you want commitment, if you want all folks at the table, the first step has got to be to say, we've got a problem, and here's a goal. ”

“ They're excited about the opportunities in the U.S. market, and they should be, because this new technology is taking hold. Last year, America installed more wind power capacity than any other country in the world. ”

“ 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. ”