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Bush To Boost Spending on Renewable Energy Technologies
Competitiveness initiative to double science budgets over 10 years

Washington -- Initiatives to develop cleaner domestic energy sources and to improve U.S. competitiveness in science and technology were among the national objectives set by President Bush in his State of the Union message January 31.

The president first announced a National Energy Policy in 2001 to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and increase domestic energy supplies. The programs outlined January 31 will work to advance those goals.

The nation has invested $10 billion since 2001 to develop cleaner, cheaper and more reliable alternative energy sources.

“We are on the threshold of incredible advances,” Bush said in the nationally televised speech delivered from the U.S. Capitol.

Bush set a goal for the United States to replace more than 75 percent of U.S. oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.

To achieve that end, he announced the Advanced Energy Initiative, a plan calling for a 22 percent increase in funding for research into cleaner energy sources to power American homes, businesses and automobiles.

The initiative will focus on several areas: zero-emission coal-fired power plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies and clean, safe nuclear energy. (See White House fact sheet.)

The nation’s extensive coal reserves long have been viewed as a substitute for foreign oil if cleaner technologies could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced by coal-fired plants.

FEDERAL FUNDING SOUGHT TO SUPPORT INITIATIVES

The 2007 budget proposed by the administration would invest more than $280 million in such technologies.

The linchpin of this goal is the previously announced FutureGen Initiative, an international collaboration with Australia and China to develop new technologies for a prototype emissions-free plant that will turn coal into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

The 2007 budget proposal would earmark $54 million for efforts to design the plant, which will capture the carbon dioxide it produces for storage in deep geologic formations rather than being emitted into the atmosphere.

The administration’s budget request, scheduled to be sent to Congress in early February for consideration, would boost U.S. efforts to make use of power from the sun with the Solar America Initiative.

A semiconductor that could convert sunlight directly into electricity is one goal of this program. The solar photovoltaic cells envisioned in this work could be incorporated into building materials, introducing the possibility of a building that completely powers itself. (See related article.)

U.S. automobiles have a huge thirst for foreign oil, so the administration also is pursuing ideas about alternate power sources for American cars. Domestic, renewable fuels are one known option, so Bush wants to speed development of ethanol fuels to make them competitive within six years.

Hydrogen fuels are another desirable alternative, and the United States has been involved in research since 2003 to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells that emit no greenhouse gases to power vehicles and buildings. (See related article.)

The president’s budget would devote almost $300 million to that research in 2007, aiming for a commercially viable hydrogen cell for vehicles by 2020. In the meantime, American drivers are buying automobiles operating on hybrid technology, using both gasoline and electricity.

The 2007 budget would devote another $30 million to research aimed at producing a better battery for the hybrids, enabling further reductions in gasoline use in these vehicles.

The renewable energy initiative, said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman during a February 1 press briefing, “will be coupled with efforts to make much more effective use of our national laboratories and continue to establish the United States as the world’s leader in research and development in the physical sciences.”

In announcing the American Competitiveness Initiative, Bush committed to double the combined budgets of the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology over the next 10 years.

The competitiveness initiative, Bodman said, “is historic and will change the future of science in this country and will be a real statement to our science colleagues around the world.”

Additional information about the U.S. National Energy Policy, FutureGen, solar photovoltaic cells and hydrogen fuels is available on the Department of Energy Web site.

A transcript of Secretary Bodman’s press conference is available on the White House Web site.

For a broader look at alternative energy research, see Renewable Energy. http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2005/Apr/22-869267.html



http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2006/Feb/02-480850.html