Thank you Chad for that kind introduction.  It’s good to be here with you.

Let me congratulate Steve and Iain on their success at bringing this truly innovate facility on line.  It’s also good to see Dr. Bruce Bursten here as well as Jeff Lorberbaum. I also want to extend my welcome to Congressman Jimmie Duncan and to the other state and local officials who are with us on this momentous day.

Today, we celebrate a new technology helping to reduce America’s dependence on energy imports.  It is a significant step down the road toward enhanced energy security.

In his 2006 State of the Union address, President Bush proposed the Advanced Energy Initiative, a focused plan to diversify America’s energy supplies by accelerating U.S. investment in the most promising clean energy technologies such as next generation nuclear power, solar, wind, clean coal and fuels made from biomass.

Diversification -- of supply and of suppliers -- is the key to America’s long term energy security.  And he charged the Department of Energy with the responsibility to see it thru.  The Department of Energy is working to make America more energy secure in the long term.  And I am excited about what we have been able to accomplish thus far, which I will come back to in a moment.

Let me first talk for a moment about the future of energy.

The global energy outlook suggests that needs will increase, and rapidly.  Global energy consumption is expected to grow by more than 50 percent by 2030 with 70 percent of that growth coming from emerging economies.

Almost two-thirds of the world’s oil and gas reserves are in countries that provide limited or, in some case, no access for foreign investment.

Fossil fuels will continue to constitute the bulk of our energy supplies for some time and the competition for them from economies like China’s and India’s will continue to drive up prices on the world energy markets.

High prices or even the threat of supply disruptions can hurt economic growth.

To insulate the U.S. economy from future energy shocks we must diversify U.S. energy supplies while doing all we can to develop new energy-efficient technologies, standards and practices.  We must find new ways to fuel the economy, to present the American people with market-friendly, environmentally-sensitive alternatives – like those in place here in Loudon -- to the way we currently power our homes, our businesses and the transportation sector.

But to do this, we have to be open to new ideas.  One place we are looking is to the new technologies generated by the American biotechnology revolution.  It may seem strange, almost futuristic, but we are hoping to take the vast accumulation of biotech knowledge gleaned in the development of cutting-edge pharmaceuticals and use it in the production of alternative energy.

What you have developed here in Loudon is one example of that idea in practice.

This facility uses corn sugar, not petroleum-based feed stocks, to manufacture 1,3-propanediol or, as you are calling it, Bio-PDO.  The production process you have developed will consume 40 percent less energy versus a petroleum-based equivalent product while reducing greenhouse emissions by 20 percent.

As a chemical engineer by training, I understand the complexities involved in the development of this new production process.  It is a major accomplishment, one that will save the energy equivalent of 15 million gallons of gasoline annually, enough to fuel 27,000 cars for an entire year, 0.01% of our motor fuels usage.

It is no wonder the American Chemical Society has chosen to honor the research teams involved in the development of Bio-PDO by presenting to them the prestigious 2007 Heroes of Chemistry award.   The work that will be done here is on the leading edge of a bio-technology revolution that I believe will change the way America powers its cars, its trucks, its homes and its businesses.

This transition will largely occur as a result of actions by the private sector, but it is the government’s job to support private sector innovation.

Yesterday, for example, as part of our commitment to support bio-tech research to produce biomass fuels, the Department of Energy selected 11 bio-based fuels research projects to receive awards totaling $8.3 million.  Hopefully these 11 research grants, funded by the Department of Energy in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, will accelerate the development of alternative fuel resources.

These grants are part of our strategic investment in biotechnology and an example of our commitment to bring about a robust bioenergy future vital to America’s energy and economic security.   Also underscoring that effort are three dynamic programs the Department is undertaking I would like to briefly mention: support for biorefineries, bio-energy research centers and loan guarantees.

First, let me tell you a little bit about what we are doing in support of biorefineries.

We recently announced that up to $200 million over five years would be made available in support of small-scale cellulosic biorefineries that will experiment with new feedstocks and processing technologies.

These small-scale projects complement the six cost-shared full scale biorefinery projects that will build on proven processes that were announced at the end of February.   The full scale sites located in Kansas; Florida; California; Iowa; Idaho; and Georgia are eligible to receive awards totaling up to $385 million over the next four years, with at least 60 percent of the respective project costs shouldered by the private sector.

Combined, these projects will receive up to $585 million in federal investment and advance DOE’s long-term diversification strategy.

The second initiative, by the Department’s Office of Science, is one I am particularly excited about because of its inherent potential to produce technological breakthroughs.

We are making a $375 million investment over five years in high risk, high return research at three cutting-edge bio-energy research centers.   I can’t tell you where they will be -- but I can tell you we are getting ready to announce them soon.

These bio-energy research centers will help us overcome the barriers currently keeping us from developing wide-scale, cost-effective biofuels.  They are critical to our future energy security and I am very excited about them.

The third but by no means last initiative is our program of loan guarantees up to $13 billion in the 2007 and 2008 budget requests to spur investment in projects employing new or novel technologies not already in widespread use including the development of alternative transportation fuels.

Through these loan guarantees, the Department is committed to helping the private sector overcome what we know to be the inherent obstacles to getting the most promising clean energy technologies commercialized for the first time.

All of these efforts put us on track to meet the President’s goals of making cellulosic ethanol cost competitive by 2012 and reducing America’s gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017.

The investments we’re making now in renewable and alternative fuels make sense – from the standpoint of our national security and from the marketplace.  In fact, our investments are being met with an enthusiastic response from the private sector, an enthusiasm I have never before seen for renewable energy technology and alternative fuels programs.  The markets are moving aggressively.

You’ve all seen the reports business leaders and entrepreneurs are coming forward with sizable and unprecedented investments.  I started out my professional life as a venture capitalist.  I can say that for the first time in my 45-year history of association with that profession, the venture capitalists are putting big money (billions of dollars per year) into clean energy projects – solar, wind and especially biofuels.

Establishing a greater reliance on biofuels represents just one part of our diversification strategy, but one that we can all see by this new facility is already paying benefits.  You see, it really is possible to achieve better living through chemistry.  Again, let me offer my congratulations on this terrific effort, one of the new miracles of science.

Thank you.

Location:
Loudon, Tennessee

Media contact(s):
Julie Ruggiero, (202) 586-4940