Advanced Energy Initiative

Assistant Secretary Alexander Karsner's appearance on Fox News Channel's "Special Report" to discuss the Advanced Energy Initiative.

May 29, 2006

Video of Alexander Karsner's appearance on Fox News Channel (Windows Media Player 52.3 MB) Download Windows Media Player.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: My question is, is there a realistic, yet aggressive timetable and strategy to get our reliance off of Middle East oil and go to a different fuel source?

BUSH: The realistic timetable is as soon as possible. The question then is how quickly can we diversify the automobile fleet from one that is gasoline-only to one that becomes a mix, for example, of gasoline and ethanol? And we are making pretty good progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANGLE: Now that's President Bush at a recent town hall meeting talking about energy, of course. The Memorial Day weekend kicked off the summer vacation and driving season, a time when the price of gasoline may give a lot of Americans pause. So what can we do and what are we doing to reduce dependence on oil?

To talk about that we are joined by Andy Karsner, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the Department of Energy.

Secretary Karsner, thanks for joining us.

ANDY KARSNER, ASSISTANT ENERGY SECRETARY: Thanks for having me, Jim.

ANGLE: Let me ask you, first. You heard the president sort of set up this topic in response to a question, a question a lot of people are asking these days. What is the goal for reducing our dependence on foreign oil and how much progress are we making?

KARSNER: We are making record progress, domestic alternative fuel production is growing at a record rate, particularly bio fuels, ethanol, bio diesel and we are looking at ways of using electricity as a fuel source. The president has laid out specific metrics. Ethanol, cellulosic ethanol by 2012 out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. And by 2030, 30 percent of our domestic fuel supply from domestic sources.

ANGLE: Now one of the things — I think people get confused. Most of the ethanol now is corn-based and from the Midwest and so forth. The advantage to the other kinds of ethanol which come from other plant fibers is that it's distributed around the country instead of located in the Midwest, is that right?

KARSNER: That's right. In fact, you can find cellulosic ethanol in Mississippi and the northwest, on both coasts so it diversifies the form of feed stock that these new biorefineries will have.

ANGLE: Now the problem has been that the ethanol from the Midwest, you have to get it to the Northeast and to the West and to the South, and that's been a problem, because there is not a distribution system. This would enable people to produce it regionally?

KARSNER: Right. Well, record amounts of capital are flowing into the Midwest rather than being exported to the Mideast for our new forms of fuels, I think what's important to remember we need new forms of transportation for those fuels, dedicated pipelines, terminally facilities and all of these things are happening with the expanded rate, about 25, 30 percent a year of growth in ethanol.

ANGLE: Now the CEOs of the Big Three automakers have been in town in recent days, talking to members of Congress, talking to the administration. How helpful are they in looking forward in trying to make the transition from total reliance on petroleum?

KARSNER: Well, I think the auto companies are stepping forward on a voluntary basis and they are engaging us in the Department of Energy in a very proactive dialogue to see ways that we can have greater penetration of flexible fuel vehicles. Secretary Bodman challenged them, when I was in Detroit with them four, five weeks ago, that more vehicle types are needed of all vehicle classes and so we are seeing that particularly with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler.

ANGLE: There are 50 some odd models that now can take up to 85 percent of ethanol? Is that right?

KARSNER: That's right. Approximately 5 million flexible fuel vehicles are on the road. Some of them with owners who don't even know they possess them. So we're making sure that they know that and sending out letters. GM has been very proactive, sending out yellow gas caps.

ANGLE: Now what about the oil companies? Obviously, the oil companies are in business to deal with oil. Are they beginning to make the transition to think of themselves as energy companies rather than just oil companies?

KARSNER: Well, different oil companies are having different levels of response. They are facing an issue where they have a fast pace of alternative fuels and some of them are going to have to decide at what point they are going to buy into this new energy economy and become energy companies rather than oil companies.

ANGLE: Now there are lots of other kinds — we're talking about transportation for the most part here. There are lots of other kinds. And one of the most intriguing is battery-operated cars that would enable you to drive 40 or 60 miles a day just on the battery power, which for most people in big urban areas would cover all their needs.

KARSNER: That's right, we call those plug-in hybrids. In other words, a hybrid you could plug into your regular socket at night and charge when the rates are lowest. It would have a positive effect on the grid and the president is including this in the advance energy initiative. We are upping, almost tripling, the amount of research and development that go into plug-in hybrids.

And we expect deployment within a reasonable timeframe.

ANGLE: Now, Senator Hillary Clinton gave a speech last week and she talked about the same things that the president has talked about in slightly different terms, obviously and I want you to listen to one of the things she said in her speech and give you a sense of where she's coming from.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NY: We've seen gas prices go up and the country scurry around trying to decide what to do to wean ourselves from imported oil, to be more self sufficient only to have gas prices fall and everybody just forget about what we need to do to protect ourselves going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANGLE: Now one of the problems is always when the price goes up, everybody gets all excited about this, runs around in circles with their hair on fire and then the price goes down and everybody says, oh, thank goodness, I can go back to driving the same car, all that sort of thing, without changing our habits.

One, is it your sense now that the country really is embarked on a different road? And two, how big a role does conservation play in all that? About a minute left.

KARSNER: Well, I'm thrilled to see that Senator Clinton has come around to embracing the president's advanced energy initiative and his bold leadership that he put out in his state of the union.

The president and the administration intend to lead on this issue. For Secretary Bodman and those of us at the Department of Energy, this is a wartime issue. And so we deal with the sort of urgency of the fact that we shouldn't have people leveraging petroleum over our economic future. In the near term, we are going to increase efficiency and we're going to increase supply. Now that Senator Clinton is on board and many of the liberal Democrats who have traditional been against heartland fuels and ethanol, I think we can make more rapid progress.

ANGLE: OK. Assistant Secretary Andy Karsner, thanks for joining us.

KARSNER: Thanks very much, Jim, good to see you.