Thank you for the opportunity to tour this very impressive facility.  The progress that is being made in advancing the technology for hydrogen fuel cells is one of the most promising, and revolutionary, developments taking place today.  It holds the potential not only for redefining the way we power our cars and trucks, but for reshaping our entire economy, and changing the ways we live.

           

I want to congratulate you for the work you do here.  And I want to take this opportunity to reiterate our Administration’s commitment to bringing about the hydrogen economy.

           

President Bush, myself, and other Cabinet Secretaries and Energy Department officials are on the road this week to highlight the President's strategy to increase our energy security that he laid out in the State of the Union.  I imagine many of you saw or read the speech.

           

First, the President announced the American Competitiveness Initiative.  This Initiative recognizes that for the United States to retain its economic leadership in an increasingly competitive world, we must retain our scientific leadership.  That is why the President has committed to doubling federal spending on research in the physical sciences over the next ten years. 

           

Many people don’t realize that the DOE is, in fact, the largest funder of research into the physical sciences.  Most of this research is conducted at our network of world-class National Laboratories, administered by our Office of Science.  And to implement the President’s agenda for keeping America’s competitive edge in the world, our Department is supporting critical research into the transformational new technologies of the 21 ^st century, areas like nanotechnology, material science, biotechnology, and high-speed computing.

           

President Bush also announced the new Advanced Energy Initiative, to increase spending on clean-energy sources that will transform our transportation sector, indeed the whole economy, and reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels. 

           

Part of this initiative includes the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.  This is a groundbreaking new international effort to help meet the world’s rapidly growing electricity needs with safe, emissions-free nuclear power, while enhancing our ability to keep nuclear technology and material out of the hands of those who seek to use it for non peaceful purposes. 

           

In addition to safe nuclear power, the Advanced Energy Initiative also seeks to strengthen our energy diversity with new investments in renewable energy sources, such as the $148 million the President has requested for the Solar America program, and another $149 million for Biomass and Biofuels programs, as well as additional funding to improve the technology of batteries for hybrid cars. 

           

Of course, hydrogen is at the center of our nation’s long-term strategy for energy and environmental security, because it can be produced from diverse, domestic energy resources, and it can be used in a fuel cell to produce electricity that powers a vehicle, or just about anything else that uses electricity, with only water and heat as byproducts.

       

Our Department’s research is currently focused on pathways that manufacture and deliver hydrogen from diverse domestic, fossil, nuclear and renewable resources while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions compared to today’s vehicles.  To support this work, the President has asked Congress for $289 million in the budget request for FY 2007.

           

Now, the hydrogen economy is a vision shared by government and industry alike, but it is one that cannot be achieved by a single agency or organization acting alone.  It requires the commitment of partners. 

           

That is why I am particularly proud of the Department’s long-standing partnership with General Motors to develop clean and efficient vehicle technologies, and particularly our joint efforts to advance hydrogen fuel cell technology.

           

The ten-year collaboration in the mid-1980s and ‘90s between General Motors and the Department of Energy at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell technology was tremendously successful.  The Joint Development Center at Los Alamos, where GM employees and Los Alamos employees worked side by side, remains a shining example of how a national laboratory can work with industry to the benefit of both. 

           

The partnership continues to grow today, more recently through DOE’s involvement with the U.S. Council for Automotive Research and the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership that involves the Department, the energy companies, and auto manufacturers including GM.  Through the Partnership we have been able to collaborate on the development of technical targets, research objectives, and technology roadmaps.

           

Perhaps one of our most visible partnerships, however, is now taking the technology developed in the laboratory and testing it on the road in real world conditions.  Through the National Hydrogen Learning Demonstration, we are working with the General Motors-Shell Hydrogen team and other energy and auto company partners to validate fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure as integrated systems. 

           

This learning demonstration will provide important data to assess our research progress in areas such as fuel cell durability, vehicle range, and hydrogen cost, and refocus our research efforts, if necessary, so that we can achieve our goal of enabling an industry commercialization decision by 2015.  This is truly a government-industry partnership, a 50-50 cost-shared effort totaling $88 million over five years.

           

Before I close, would like to thank Dr. Larry Burns, Vice President of Research and Planning, for his vision and leadership in positioning General Motors at the forefront on the road to a hydrogen economy.  I’d also like to thank Mr. Matt Fronk, Chief Engineer, for graciously hosting us today, and for all of the work he’s done over the years – and continues to do – to advance fuel cell technology.  There’s also one other person I’d like to thank, who could not be here, and that is Dr. Byron McCormick.  He deserves much of the credit for the fuel cell program here, building on his many years of experience with battery electric vehicles.

           

Achieving the hydrogen economy requires a long-term commitment.  It also requires special combination of vision, leadership, and technical know-how.  General Motors has that combination.  So let me congratulate all of you for commitment to achieving our common vision that will reinvent the automobile, and help ensure a clean and secure energy future.

           

With that, let me close my remarks and thank you once again for your hospitality and your attention.