ENERGY Bush visits Va. refinery, touts alternative fuel
ENERGY
Bush visits Va. refinery, touts alternative fuel
The president is still pushing for more oil drilling.
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- With the summer driving season on the horizon, President Bush is pushing for quick development of alternative fuel sources in the face of rising oil prices and depletion of traditional energy resources.
Bush, who for months has been pressuring Congress to adopt an energy policy he proposed more than three years ago, visited a biodiesel refinery in West Point, Va., on Monday to draw attention to America's need to develop alternative sources and lessen dependence on foreign sources of oil.
But Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the president isn't going far enough in support of alternative fuels.
"Consumers are facing record gas prices at the pump while oil companies are reporting record profits," Reid said. "Oil companies are not expanding their purchases of lower-priced biodiesel and ethanol and are continuing to purchase expensive crude oil and raise gasoline prices. The president should immediately call on oil companies and refiners to use more domestically produced biodiesel and ethanol."
Bush called biodiesel, which uses products like soybeans and recycled cooking grease to generate a clean-burning gasoline substitute, "one of our nation's most promising alternative fuel sources."
"What I think is interesting is they have combined farming and modern science, and by doing so, you're using one of the world's oldest industries to power some of the world's newest technologies," Bush told employees of the Virginia BioDiesel Refinery. "After all, they're taking soybeans and converting it to fuel and putting it into brand-new Caterpillar engines."
Pure biodiesel, according to the Department of Energy, reduces carbon-dioxide emissions by more than 75 percent over petroleum diesel. Using a 20-percent biodiesel blend reduces such emissions by 15 percent.
But some argue there is a trade-off. David Friedman, research director of the clean-vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, noted that increased biodiesel use would reduce the amount of waste grease burned or tossed into landfills and address global warming. But it produces "significantly more smog-forming pollutants and carcinogenetic particulate matter than your typical gasoline vehicle," although additional research could address those problems.