26-05-06
Oil and coal will continue to power the US
economy for many years, even as more emphasis is put on developing alternative
sources of energy, US Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman said in Houston.
"Fossil fuels will continue to dominate... for several decades at least," Bodman
said during a commencement address to about 350 members of the South Texas
College of Law 2006 graduating class at the George R. Brown Convention Centre.
Bodman, who was sworn in as energy secretary in February 2005, said
alternative forms of energy such as wind and ethanol fuel made from corn would
contribute to the country's energy future. But one of the most important sources
of energy will be nuclear power, along with the means of safely operating the
plants and disposing of nuclear waste, he said.
President Bush's administration goal is to replace 75 % of the United States'
Middle East oil imports with alternative fuels by 2025.
Bodman has told Congress that part of the solution will come from increased
research on hydrogen, solar and biological fuels, and fusion, a nuclear reaction
that produces no radioactive waste.
The linchpin to the administration's energy policy is the Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership, a plan for developing new technologies in partnership with other
countries that will make conventional nuclear power safer.
Source: Houston Chronicle