Last night to he Georgia Republic Party's President's Day Dinner. Today to the 45th annual Government Affairs Conference of the National Newspaper Association. This national association of community newspapers. with over 2,500 members, is the largest newspaper association in the U.S. See also comments since State of Union at http://www.hybridcars.com/blogs/power/state-of-union-now-what and since his "energy trip: at http://www.hybridcars.com/blogs/power /pres-bush-endorses-phevs-amazing-breakthrough

By the way, we knew that a phtoo of our PRIUS+ was featured in the Advanced Energy Initiative's online pages at http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/energy/index.html; it turns out it's also in the glossy 20-page brochure the White House is distributing -- you can download it at that URL.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060309-10.html March 9, 2006 President's Remarks at Georgia Republican Party's President's Day Dinner Georgia International Convention Center, College Park, Georgia Part of shaping our future is to make sure we're not hooked on oil. I know that sounds odd for a Texan to say. (Laughter.) But if you see the world from my perspective, I think you would agree with me. Being addicted to oil is a problem. When demand for hydrocarbons or fossil fuels goes up in developing parts of the world, it causes the price of gasoline to go up here at home. When parts of the world that don't like the United States of America threaten to withhold supplies of oil from the market, it creates a national security problem. And so I'm looking forward to working with Congress to diversify away from oil, to spend money on research and development so we can have plug-in hybrid automobiles that can drive the fist 40 miles on electricity, to spend money to make sure that our technologies are able to help us develop ethanol. Look, we want our farmers in Georgia growing crops that can run our automobiles. We need to become less dependent on foreign sources of oil in order to be a competitive nation. (Applause.)

We need nuclear power and solar power and wind power. In order for this country to be competitive in the out years, in order for us to be confident about our national security, we have got to be less addicted to Middle Eastern oil, and I intend to lead that country this direction [sic]. (Applause.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031000729.html President Bush Speaks to the National Newspaper Association Courtesy CQ Transcripts Wire Friday, March 10, 2006; 11:17 AM

We also need bipartisanship when it comes to energy.

I surprised some of you, and I'm sure some of my Texas friends here were somewhat surprised to hear me say, "We're addicted to oil and that's a problem."

(LAUGHTER)

And it is a problem. It's an economic problem, economic security problem.

When demand for fossil fuels goes up in India or China or elsewhere, it affects the price of gasoline in Granbury, Texas.

BUSH: When I'm sitting around the Oval Office talking about national security matters and someone says, "Did you see what the Iranians said about consequences?" Really what they're talking about, I guess, is energy.

So for national security purposes, we have got to become, you know, not addicted to oil. And there are ways to do this: really interesting ways, exciting new technologies. And Congress and the administration needs to work together to fund those new technologies.

For example, it's possible to develop energy from sawgrass. We know we can develop energy from sugar and corn; we're doing it in the Midwest. Those of you in the Midwest have seen the advent of the E-85 pumps.

Well, we need to be able to get ethanol out of other forms of biomass. And it's coming. We're close to some breakthroughs.

We want people driving cars from fuels grown in America. That's what we want.

There's going to be hybrid batteries being developed that will enable you to plug in your car or your truck and you'll be able to drive the first 40 miles on electricity. That's coming. It's called plug-in hybrid vehicles. That's going to be a part of making sure we're not addicted to oil.

Same on the electricity front. We can use wind power and electricity. These are all coming to the market because of research. They're becoming competitive forms of energy.

We need nuclear power, in my judgment. It's a renewable source of energy that doesn't create greenhouse gases.

We're spending a lot of money, by the way, on clean coal technology. We've got 250 years of coal here in the United States of America. And we're developing technologies so that we can burn the coal cleanly.

In other words, we've got a comprehensive strategy to get us off oil. And I'm looking forward to working with both Republicans and Democrats to get this passed.