Thank you Jerry for the introduction and thank you to the representatives of Daimler-Chrysler, Ford and General Motors for their time today, and for all their companies have done to spur innovations in the automobile marketplace.

The products of that innovation and their hard work are on display here today.  These exciting new developments emphasize how different the marketplace, the auto industry and the American economy are today, than even they were 10 years ago. 

With change comes transition, and the technologies of the future bring with them new kinds of jobs. President Bush, through his community college grants program, is committed to ensuring that today’s work force is prepared and able to meet the challenges of tomorrow We are also committed to continue to work together with the private sector to make new technologies like those here today a commercial reality.   

Therefore, it is my pleasure to announce three actions the Department of Energy is taking to further the development of hydrogen as a fuel for motor vehicles.

First, we are awarding $19 million in grants for additional research into the development of polymer membranes.  We are also making available $100 million over the next four years to be used to find ways to make hydrogen fuel cells more affordable, more durable and better performing. And, finally, we are releasing our “Roadmap on Manufacturing Research and Development for the Hydrogen Economy,” an inter-agency document spearheaded by the Department of Energy that will be used as the basis for future solicitations, and is being released for public comment today. But before I get into that in greater detail, I want to begin by saying what a pleasure it is to be here with you this morning at what I regard as an excellent opportunity to see some of the best and most creative ideas U.S. manufacturers have to offer.

There are few things as quintessentially American as an auto show.  It is to the continuing credit of the U.S. automotive industry that, year after year, they can capture our attention with the new products they roll out.

This is due in no small measure to their consistent focus on the future - on the new designs and new technologies that make automobiles more efficient, affordable, safe and ever more impressive. Back in the days of the horse and buggy, the skeptics used to call the automobile the “horseless carriage.”

At the industry’s onset they could not – or perhaps would not – acknowledge the way the gasoline powered automobile would change the very fabric of the country.

They were wrong.

Today, as author and essayist E.B. White once observed, “Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.”

The automobile is an integral part of our lives and of the nation’s economy. As you know, the president--in his 2003 State of the Union address--announced the creation of a $1.2 billion federal initiative to fund the development of commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells that could be used in trucks, cars, homes and businesses, while producing little or no pollution or greenhouse gases and, at the same time, dramatically reducing U.S. dependence on foreign sources of energy. Since that time, DOE-funded research has led to the doubling of the lifetime of the hydrogen fuel cell stack, and reduced the projected high volume cost of cell production by 60 percent. 

We are also working on new technologies to bring down the cost of hydrogen to a point where it will be competitive with existing conventional fuels.

Our research has reduced the cost of hydrogen produced from natural gas by almost 40 percent between 2003 and 2005.

And we are pushing forward in the effort to find cheaper ways to produce hydrogen from renewable resources. The initiatives taken by the Department of Energy have brought us to the point where a commercially viable hydrogen-powered car is closer than it has ever been. Now I would like to give you some details about the announcements I made earlier.

The $19 million I mentioned is to support cost-shared research and development of polymer membranes, the heart of the technology that will be shared among 12 competitively-selected projects in 11 different states.

In addition, the Department is making available through a competitive solicitation up to $100 million over the next four years for research projects seeking to further improve fuel cell membranes, cell hardware, cell performance and durability, among other aspects of the research. Through this investment, the Department of Energy hopes to improve performance and to lower the cost of these technologies by 2010 and, in partnership with the private sector, hopes to make it practical and cost-effective for large numbers of Americans to purchase clean, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2020.

The “Roadmap on Manufacturing Research and Development for the Hydrogen Economy,” I announced is the result of a year-long collaboration between government entities working at the direction of the president’s National Science and Technology Council.

It is an integral part of the president’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and provides a pathway to overcoming current research barriers and making the dream a reality. 

The Department of Energy has worked very productively with the U.S. auto industry – in particular Detroit’s “Big Three” and I, for one, want to commend them for their leadership.

Their commitment to a vision of a world radically different from the one in which we now live is commendable. 

I have just seen the product of their most recent work; it is impressive but it is just the beginning. We believe the promise of hydrogen fuel cell powered automobiles and trucks – once realized –  will significantly reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil, lead to the creation of countless new jobs in industries that cannot yet even be imagined, and will play a major role in reducing the production of emissions that some believe cause harm to the environment.

These projects focus on overcoming the critical barriers in getting the technology out of the lab and out on to the test track.

We are well past the point where we can see it can be done – we are now at the point of figuring out how it can be done, affordably and safely. And with that I am happy to take a few questions.

Location:
D.C. Convention Center

Media contact(s):
Mike Waldron, 202-586-4940