WASHINGTON—The United States will commit $2 billion over the
next three years to a new international fund to promote clean energy
technologies and fight climate change, President George W. Bush told Congress on
Monday in his annual State of the Union speech.
"Let us create a new international clean technology fund,
which will help developing nations like India and China make greater use of
clean energy sources," Bush said.
He said the United States is committed to working with major
economies and the United Nations to complete an international agreement that
"has the potential to slow, stop and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse
gases."
"This agreement will be effective only if it includes
commitments by every major economy and gives none a free ride," Bush said. "The
United States is committed to strengthening our energy security and confronting
global climate change."
Delegates from the biggest greenhouse gas-polluting countries
will meet this week in Hawaii to spur UN negotiations for an international
climate agreement by 2009 that would replace the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol
expiring in 2012.
The Bush administration rejects the Kyoto Protocol, saying it
unfairly exempts developing countries from cutting emissions and could hurt the
US economy. Bush favors voluntary measures and "aspirational goals" to limit
climate change.
In response to Bush’s speech, environmental groups called the
president’s voluntary efforts to curb global warming an old approach that would
not work.
"In the fight against global warming, the science is clear:
the path to avoid catastrophic climate change starts with mandatory limits on
global warming pollution ... a voluntary approach adds up to lots of rhetoric
and little actual change," said the National Wildlife Federation.
On energy issues, Bush once again called for the United
States to cut its dependence on oil, which this month hit a record $100.09 a
barrel, by developing new sources of energy.
"To build a future of energy security, we must trust in the
creative genius of American researchers and entrepreneurs and empower them to
pioneer a new generation of clean energy technology. Our security, our
prosperity and our environment all require reducing our dependence on oil," Bush
said.
He said the United States needs to generate more of its
electricity from clean coal, solar and wind energy and nuclear power. He also
called for more investment in developing advanced batteries and renewable fuels
that will run future cars and trucks.
The National Mining Association welcomed Bush’s call for more
clean energy use, particularly cleaner-burning coal.
"Providing greater clean power and energy security for US
businesses and families is not a partisan political objective, but one both
parties must pursue to meet the environmental and energy supply challenges that
lie ahead," the group said.
Bush is not giving up on oil altogether. The White House said
the administration wants Congress to pass legislation that opens to drilling
more offshore US waters and parts of Alaska where energy exploration is now
banned.
Bush also wants Congress to approve doubling the size of the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which can now hold about 727 million barrels of
emergency oil supplies at four underground storage sites in Texas and Louisiana.
Unlike last year’s State of the Union message, there was
little in Bush’s speech this year calling for a major overhaul of US energy
policy.
That is because Congress passed a comprehensive energy bill that Bush signed
into law in December. It increases vehicle fuel efficiency for the first time in
over three decades, significantly boosts ethanol use, makes appliances more
energy efficient and phases out the traditional light bulb.
