Bush on the US energy objectives
Initiatives to develop cleaner, domestic energy sources 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 US Capitol. (See related article.)
Bush set a goal for the United States to replace more than 75 percent of US 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.
This 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 on initiative.)
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.
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, devoted to development of new technologies to create an emissions-free coal plant.
The 2007 budget proposal would earmark $54 million for efforts to design a coal-fired power plant that captures the carbon dioxide it produces for storage in deep geologic formations rather than being emitted into the atmosphere.
The 2007 administration budget, soon to be sent to Congress for consideration, would boost US efforts to make use of sunshine 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.
US 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.
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.