12.01.06 PCAST Delivers Report to President on Energy Technologies of the Future

Washington, DC -- Today, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) presented to President Bush a report on The Energy Energy Imperative: Technology and the Role of Emerging Companies. The report, presented to the President by PCAST Co-Chairs Floyd Kvamme and John Marburger, examines entrepreneurial activity in the transportation and electric power sectors and describes an array of technology innovations that could help achieve energy security and a more economic and environmentally sound energy infrastructure.

The report notes that while no single approach can solve the Nation’s energy challenges, collective advances in several technology areas could allow us to meet national and global energy demands, potentially reducing oil imports up to 70 percent by 2030. It also recommends policy actions to accelerate advancement and deployment of these technologies, and highlights the respective roles and the need for collaboration among entrepreneurs, the Federal Government, State governments, universities, and established stakeholders in the private sector.

In their letter to the President transmitting the report, Kvamme and Marburger stated: "Our recommendations focus on immediate steps that could be taken to reduce our Nation’s reliance on foreign oil and to reduce atmospheric emissions from energy production and use. In the area of electricity generation, we call for steps to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear power, clean coal technology, renewable sources such as solar and wind energy, and energy efficiency technologies. In the area of transportation, we suggest steps for a major transition to biofuels and to electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles. With these new transportation technologies, American consumers will have a choice of fuels that previously has not been available."

Many of the PCAST recommendations are being pursued as part of the Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI), announced by the President during his January 2006 State of the Union address. The AEI aims to help America reduce its dependence on foreign sources of energy through aggressive pursuit of clean-energy technologies in the transportation and electric power sectors.