Remarks by the President on Energy Independence

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 -- The following are remarks by the
President on Energy Independence at the National Building Museum:

    The National Building Museum
    Washington, D.C.

    1:35 P.M. EST

    THE PRESIDENT:  Thanks for the warm welcome.  I'm glad you're here and I'm
glad I'm here.  The technology that we have just seen -- and I hope you take a
look at -- is going to be seen on the roads of America.  And it's important
for our country to understand that by being bold and innovative, we can change
the way we do business here in America; we can change our dependence upon
foreign sources of energy; we can help with the quality of the air; we can
make a fundamental difference for the future of our children.
    By what we do today can make a tremendous difference for the future of
this country.  How we invest taxpayers' monies today can help change the
world.  And that's what we're here to discuss.
    I want to thank my Secretary of Energy, Spence Abraham, for doing a fine
job, for being willing to help us think beyond the normal by leading an
important department, a department that's going to help America maintain a
technological advantage when it comes to energy and devices that require
energy.
    I also want to thank Christie Todd Whitman for being a really, really good
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.  And I want to thank all
of the employees from both the Energy Department and the EPA who are here
today.
    Thank you for your service to the country.  I appreciate so very much
members of the United States Senate who are here:  Pete Domenici, from New
Mexico; and Byron Dorgan, from North Dakota.  Thank you, all, for your
interest in this project.  I look forward to working with both distinguished
members of the Senate to get this initiative through.
    And I want to thank the folks who have brought your technologies here for
me to see.  I wish I had more time to spend, but in the brief tour I took, it
is -- we're on the cutting edge of change that is going to dramatically change
this country for the better.  And it's exciting to see the products that
you're producing.  More importantly, it's exciting to meet the entrepreneurs
who are willing to take the risks necessary to produce those products.
    I also want to thank the students who are here, the science and technology
students who are here -- our future scientists, those who are going to take
what appears to be dramatic innovation today and improve on it in the coming
years.  And so thanks for your interest and thanks for caring about your
country.  Keep studying hard.  Don't watch too much TV.  (Laughter.)  Read a
lot.
    We've got some responsibilities in our nation.  We've got a responsibility
to our environment.  That's why I've sent up to the United States Congress a
clear skies initiative.  It's an initiative that I take very seriously.  It's
an initiative that we worked closely with Christie Todd and Spence on to
develop, that makes sense for the -- for our country.  It's an initiative that
will reduce air pollution from power plants by 70 percent by the year 2018.
It's an initiative that seriously addresses sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide,
and mercury.  It's an initiative which must get a hearing in the United States
Congress.  It's an initiative I expect to pass this year.  (Applause.)
    I laid out a comprehensive energy plan last year.  It got -- there was a
lot of debate about it, a lot of discussion.  It didn't pass the Congress.  I
expect it to pass this year.  I look forward to working with you, Mr.
Chairman.  It's a plan that will encourage conservation.  It's a plan that
will increase production at home in an environmentally sensitive way.  It is a
plan which will modernize our electricity delivery systems.  It is a plan
which is needed.  It is a plan needed for economic security.  It is a plan
needed for national security.  I want to sign a comprehensive energy bill this
year.  (Applause.)
    Today, we have a chance to move beyond the environmental debates of the
past, debates that centered around regulation and lawsuit -- what I like to
call the command and control era of environmental policy, where all wisdom
that seemed to emanate out of Washington, D.C. where things got hamstrung and
stuck because lawyers got more involved in the process than the people on the
front lines of actually improving our environment.
    We can move beyond that through technology, and that's what I want to
discuss today.  Hydrogen fuel cells represent one of the most encouraging,
innovative technologies of our era.  And if you're interested in our
environment and if you're interested in doing what's right for the American
people, if you're tired of the same old endless struggles that seem to produce
nothing but noise and high bills, let us promote hydrogen fuel cells as a way
to advance into the 21st century.  (Applause.)
    We saw cars engineered to run on hydrogen.  When you walk around this
curtain and you take a look at those vehicles, they are going to run on
hydrogen.  We saw cell phones that can run on hydrogen, laptop computers.
There's going to be all kinds of applications for the use of hydrogen-powered
fuel cells in our society.
    And there's a lot of advantages that I want to explain to the American
people about why this initiative makes sense.  First, the hydrogen can be
produced from domestic sources -- initially, natural gas; eventually, biomass,
ethanol, clean coal, or nuclear energy.  That's important.  If you can produce
something yourself, it means you're less dependant upon somebody else to
produce it.
    And not only that, the sources of hydrogen are abundant.  The more you
have of something relative to demand for that, the cheaper it's going to be,
the less expensive it'll be for the consumer.  The more supply you have of
something, one, you're not going to run out of it and, two, it means that
society is going to be more friendly for those who are trying to purchase the
supply for needed -- for life's needs.
    Hydrogen power is also clean to use.  Cars that will run on hydrogen fuel
produce only water, not exhaust fumes.  Eliminating pollution from cars will
obviously make our air healthier. Hydrogen power will dramatically reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, helping this nation take the lead when it comes to
tackling the long-term challenges of global climate change.
    One of the greatest results of using hydrogen power, of course, will be
energy independence for this nation.  It's important for our country to
understand -- I think most Americans do -- that we import over half of our
crude oil stocks from abroad.  And sometimes we import that oil from countries
that don't particularly like us.  It puts us at a -- it jeopardizes our
national security to be dependant on sources of energy from countries that
don't care for America, what we stand for, what we love.  It's also a matter
of economic security, to be dependent on energy from volatile regions of the
world.  Our economy becomes subject to price shocks or shortages or
disruptions, or one time in our history, cartels.
    If we develop hydrogen power to its full potential, we can reduce our
demand for oil by over 11 million barrels per day by the year 2040.
(Applause.)
    That would be a fantastic legacy to leave for future generations of
Americans.  See, we can make the world more peaceful, and we will; we can
promote freedom, and we will.  Those will be wonderful legacies.  But also
think about a legacy here at home, about making investments today that will
make future citizens of our great country less dependent on foreign sources of
energy.  And so that's why I'm going to work with the Congress to move this
nation forward on hydrogen fuel cell technologies.  It is in our national
interest that we do so.
    So I'm asking Congress to spend $1.2 billion on a new national commitment
to take hydrogen fuel cell cars from the laboratory to the showroom.  And as I
said in my State of the Union, the idea is to see that a car born today -- I
mean, a child born today will be driving a car, as his or her first car, which
will be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free.  (Applause.)
    It won't be easy to get there because there are obstacles.  It's important
for the American people to know.  There are obstacles to overcome.  I wouldn't
be proposing this initiative if I didn't think we could overcome the
obstacles.  We must make hydrogen more plentiful and produce it in the most
efficient, cost-effective way.  That is one of our challenges.  We must lower
the cost of fuel cells, so that the automobile can compete -- the cost of the
automobile is cost effective.  We must increase the capacity of hydrogen
storage systems.
    And we put in place the infrastructure to get hydrogen to the consumers.
There would be nothing worse than developing a car and having no place for
somebody to find the fuel.  People aren't going to buy many cars if they can't
refuel their car.  (Laughter.)  The work has well begun -- the freedom car
initiative to created partnerships between our government and the auto makers
to engineer the next generation of hydrogen fuel cells to power cars.  And
we're making progress.
    The new effort that we're undertaking with Congress' help is to develop a
system for producing and delivering hydrogen fuel so that when the cars are
ready, people can fill them up at their convenience.  It's a big project
because we're -- we'll be changing years of habit, years of infrastructure
must be replaced by a modern way.  But we'll achieve this.  It's going to make
economic sense to do this, it's going to mean that our air is cleaner, and our
national security is more secure.  It's going to happen.  And I look forward
to working with Congress to start the process.
    Pete, I don't know if you and I are going to be driving one of these cars,
but our grandkids will.  And we can be -- we can say we did our duty.  You
know, we can look back and say, we came, stayed here for just a little bit,
proposed some initiatives that would fundamentally alter the American way of
life in a positive way, got it started, and went home -- knowing we were
called upon, and we answered the bell.
    And as we -- and I believe we can lead the world for creating a market for
hydrogen.  We're also going to work to produce electricity and hydrogen
through a process called fusion.  Fusion is the same kind of nuclear reaction
that produces -- that powers the sun.  The energy produced will be safe and
clean and abundant.  We've spent quite a bit of money, as the senators here
will tell you, on whether or not fusion works.  And we're not sure if it will
be able to produce affordable energy for everyday use.  But it's worth a try.
It's worth a look.  Because the promise is so great.
    So the United States will work with Great Britain and several European
nations, as well as Canada, Japan, Russia and China, to build a fusion test
facility and create the largest and most advanced fusion experiment in the
world.  I look forward to working with Congress to get it funded.  I know you
all have considered this in the past.  It's an incredibly important project to
be a part of.
    Imagine a world in which our cars are driven by hydrogen and our homes are
heated by electricity from a fusion power plant.  It'll be a totally different
world than what we're used to.  The quality of life will be advanced.  And
people will say, gosh, I'm glad those folks went to Washington and were
willing to think beyond the current.  We're willing to have a vision for what
is possible.  After all, that's what a lot of our forefathers used to think.
That's how they envisioned a better America, for the America we have today.
And we have that opportunity here in Washington, D.C.  We have the opportunity
to blaze new paths.  I'm willing to get on a path.  I know the members of
Congress here are willing to get on the path.  It makes sense for America to
do so.
    For the entrepreneurs here, thanks for being an entrepreneur.  Keep
dreaming your dreams.  It's the collective dreams of the American
entrepreneurial set which really define our future for us.  Here today, I'm
going to say your government is not to stand in your way, but stand by your
side as we blaze new paths for our country.
    Thank you all for your interest.  God bless.  (Applause.)

    END                            1:52 P.M. EST