Fact Sheet: Reducing Gas Prices and Foreign Oil Dependence

Business Wire, June 18, 2008

* President Bush is proposing measures to expedite the refinery permitting process. The President proposes that challenges to refineries and other related energy project permits must be brought before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals within 60 days of the issuance of a permit decision. In addition, the President proposes that the Secretary of Energy be empowered to establish binding deadlines for permit decisions and to ensure that the various levels of approval required in the refinery permitting process are all handled in a timely way. And Congress should allow new refineries to be built on abandoned military bases.

These Proposals Will Take Years To Have Their Full Impact, But That Is No Excuse For Delay

For the long run, we are dealing with the demand for oil by promoting alternative energy technologies. President Bush's Administration has worked with Congress to invest in gas-saving technologies like advanced batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, mandated a large expansion in the use of alternative fuels, and raised fuel efficiency standards to ambitious new levels. With all these steps, we are bringing America closer to the day when we can end our addiction to oil.

* Building on this progress, President Bush announced the "Twenty in Ten" initiative in his 2007 State of the Union address. Congress responded to this challenge and passed and the President signed, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which mandates that fuel producers use at least 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022. EISA also requires a national fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 - which will increase fuel economy by 40 percent and save billions of gallons of fuel.