It’s a privilege to be here today with all of you. I had a chance to speak to some of you briefly in March, when you were in Washington with the National Governors Association. At that time, Governor Richardson suggested that I make this trip to attend your meeting here. It is something he did early in his tenure as Energy Secretary, and he said he found it very useful. I am grateful for the suggestion, because I do want to highlight the important relationship between Western states and the Department of Energy.

The states that you represent are home to many of our nation’s vital energy resources. And a large number of the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, satellite offices, research projects and demonstrations, and other Departmental ventures, are located in this little section of the country called "the West." In fact, altogether, the Department of Energy is spending just over $15 billion--about 62 percent--of our budget this year in the states represented by the WGA.

Furthermore, the Department of Energy, as you probably know better than I, lends direct financial support to a number of WGA initiatives. These joint efforts include a plan for achieving 30,000 megawatts of clean-energy generation capacity, or energy efficiency offsets, by the year 2015. We are also funding efforts relating to the transport of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. And we are contributing to WGA initiatives to enhance the use of solar power, and improve electricity transmission planning.

So there is a lot of promising energy work going on in the West. And as I mentioned, the western states are home to some of the Department’s most important facilities. In the four months since I was sworn in, I have made it a point to try to visit many of our National Laboratories and regional projects. In part, of course, I want to see how we are spending that $15 billion I mentioned. It’s a lot of money, and when the President asks me whether we are being responsible and careful with the taxpayers’ money, I like giving him an affirmative and honest answer. So far, I am glad to say, I am pleased with what I have seen.

One of the first visits I made, as Governor Richardson knows, was to our Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. I was very impressed. These facilities played a historic role in making many of the early discoveries about radiation and nuclear materials. They developed the first atomic weapons that led to decisive victory in the Pacific theater of World War II, saving many American lives. And today, these laboratories continue to perform the invaluable service of managing our nuclear deterrent, and ensuring its reliability through highly sophisticated computer modeling rather than testing.

Two weeks ago, I took another trip to DOE facilities in the West--including the clean-up project in Hanford, Washington. I saw first hand the enormity of the challenge we face cleaning up the legacy of our Cold War nuclear research. As I always do when I visit a DOE facility, I spoke with the employees at Hanford, as well as the Pacific Northwest Laboratory, at an "all hands" meeting, to share my perspective and priorities, answer their questions, and to listen to their concerns.

Environmental clean-up is one of the Department’s most serious responsibilities. In many cases, we have made good progress in recent years, reducing timetables and costs of projects. For example, cleanup of the Rocky Flats site in Colorado – originally scheduled for completion in 2045 – is now on track to be completed next year, or even by the end of this year. We are also making progress in cleanup projects in Idaho and other locations. But there are challenges as well. A preliminary evaluation indicates some problems with the management at Hanford, which we will need to work harder to address. On my visit, Governor Gregoire and I had a very useful talk about this issue, including budgets for environmental clean-up. As I said to Governor Gregoire, and I would like to say to all the Governors of states where we have clean-up projects: our Department is committed to working in close cooperation with you, your staffs, and your congressional delegations to overcome whatever obstacles we face, and get these projects completed.

On the same trip, I also had the chance to see the Idaho National Laboratory, where Governor Kempthorne and I participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for an exciting new facility called the Center for Advanced Energy Studies. That Center, and the Idaho Lab generally, are going to help revitalize the nuclear power industry in this country.

Pursuing the development of clean and safe nuclear power is part of the Department’s mission for ensuring a stable, reliable, secure and affordable supply of energy for America’s growing economy – and doing so in an environmentally responsible way. That is why I was very pleased yesterday to see what is going on--and to speak to the employees--at our National Renewable Energy Lab here in Colorado.

While I was there I had the opportunity to announce a very promising new joint project between DOE, the Lab, and Habitat for Humanity. Together, we plan to build a "net zero-energy" use home-- a house designed to produce as much energy as it consumes on an annual basis. NREL’s work on energy efficiency projects such as this, as well as its efforts in developing hydrogen fuel cells and expanding the use of renewable energy sources such wind, make this Lab essential to the Department’s core energy mission.

But, I am not here to talk only about our Laboratories. Obviously, a robust energy sector involves much more than just scientific research. It’s important to find the cleanest and most efficient ways to use our energy resources. But that means having those resources in the first place! And here, again, the Western states play a vital role. Texas, California, Alaska, Oklahoma, Wyoming and New Mexico produce much of our nation’s oil. These and other states also produce natural gas. And Utah and Wyoming produce coal, the fuel that generates more than half our nation’s electricity.

Today, it is more important than ever to make the best possible use of these valuable resources. Oil prices are reminding us daily of the need to increase our domestic supply of energy--not only in petroleum, but across the board. That is why last October, Congress enacted and the President approved the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act to streamline federal permitting for this important project and authorize $18 billion in federal loan guarantees. Improving our domestic supply situation also includes opening a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to environmentally responsible energy development. ANWR is another site I had the opportunity to visit not long ago, and I was very impressed with the cutting-edge exploration technology I saw there.

Expanding our domestic energy production is vital, of course. But much of the President’s ambitious energy agenda needs to be addressed in comprehensive energy legislation that awaits passage. In particular, the President wants to pursue the most promising and transformative energy technologies to meet our growing energy needs. This includes modernizing our energy infrastructure; expanding our use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power; making our use of energy more efficient; and pursuing various avenues that would help reduce pollution and lessen America’s dependence on foreign oil.

For this reason, energy legislation, in my view, is among the most important matters to come before this Congress. So I have spent a good part of my time the last few months working with congressional leaders to get comprehensive energy legislation passed this year. We hope Congress will, within the next few weeks, send the President a bill that expands and safely maintains our petroleum and natural gas pipeline networks; ensures adequate electric generation capacity to meet growing demands; and strengthens our electric power delivery system.

I recently announced the creation of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, which merges the functions of two previous DOE offices, and is intended to lead national efforts to modernize the electric grid, enhance security and reliability of the energy infrastructure, and facilitate recovery from disruptions to energy supply. This is a major step toward greater electricity reliability, but we need the support of Congress to keep moving forward.

We also need to more fully develop our renewable energy resources to help increase our energy security and diversify our energy supply. Wind and solar power are especially promising, and a number of Western states have major projects in place or are moving ahead with development efforts.

In addition, we are working to develop cleaner and more-efficient ways to use our traditional energy resources, particularly coal, which is so abundant in the West. Our Department is looking at ways to continue using fossil fuels like coal while slashing or even eliminating greenhouse gas emissions.

One of the most exciting of these research projects is FutureGen, a $1 billion public-private initiative to design, build, and operate the first coal-fired, emissions-free power plant. When operational, it will use the latest technology to generate 275 megawatts of electricity, sequester greenhouse gases, and provide a new source of clean-burning hydrogen.

FutureGen will use a revolutionary technological process that starts with gasifying the coal. After cleaning up the synthetic gas and ridding it of pollutants such sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury, it will be run through a process to increase the hydrogen content and separate the carbon.

Assuming this works, we will then be faced with the challenge of figuring out how to store the CO2 and keep it out of the atmosphere--preferably in deep underground geological formations. To help develop this technology, our Department has just announced $100 million in funding for seven carbon sequestration projects. Four of those regional partnerships are based here in the West: at Montana State University, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, the University of North Dakota, and the California Energy Commission.

As you can see, there’s a lot of very important work being done, which brings me to the last important point I wish to make before concluding.

I am extremely pleased that we are joined today by Premier Klein of Alberta--who I had the pleasure of meeting in March--as well as Premier Doer of Manitoba and Premier Calvert of Saskatchewan. Canada and the United States are closely bound together, particularly through the energy-rich western sections of both countries. Each of our nations is the other’s largest trading partner; and our energy sectors--like our economies generally--are closely interwoven in many ways, including the electricity grid.

In the aftermath of the blackout two years ago, both countries cooperated in a thorough investigation of the causes, and proposed recommendations to minimize the chances of such an event in the future. We are now implementing those recommendations to ensure a more reliable electric supply on both sides of the border. Clearly, both our nations will benefit as we strengthen and improve this cooperation even more.

So I look forward to working with all of you--Premiers and Governors--as we pursue a variety of important initiatives in the months and years ahead. Successfully meeting the energy challenges we face will entail many opportunities--indeed, many requirements--for us to have regular contact and develop strong relationships. I think today’s meeting is a great step in that direction.

Thank you for your kind invitation to join you today.

Media contact:
Anne Womack Kolton, 202/586-4940

Location:
Breckenridge, Colo.