President Bush Underlines America's Energy Challenge
President Bush Underlines America's Energy Challenge in Today's Visit to Danish Company Novozymes
Berlingske Tidende, February 22, 2007
Op-Ed by James P. Cain, U.S. Ambassador to Denmark
America has the political will to change the way it thinks about energy. Danish industry has the cutting-edge science to help us make that change. Today, this American commitment and that Danish know-how are meeting up today in a high-profile way in my home state of North Carolina. I want to let you in on the story.
The main protagonists are President George W. Bush and Novozymes CEO Steen Risgaard, and the two meet today - Thursday - when President Bush visits Novozymes North America in Franklinton, North Carolina. The President will tour the plant and host a roundtable with Novozymes staff, along with Cabinet members, invited dignitaries, White House officials, and about a hundred national and international journalists. So what is this all about?
Go back a few weeks to the President's State of the Union address on January 23. "America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will make us less dependent on oil and help us confront the serious challenge of climate change," he said.
The fact is that for the past two years, the Bush Administration has been pushing new initiatives to accelerate the nation's transition from petroleum-based fuels. The President's goal is to reduce gasoline usage by 20 percent in the United States over the next ten years. Achieving this goal will mean a complete halt to the growth of emissions from vehicles – by far the greatest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. These and related policy initiatives are putting America at the forefront of global efforts to confront climate change.
This explains why the bio-ethanol and biomass-to-ethanol industries are getting attention from the White House. They are key players in the effort to reduce America's dependency on imported foreign oil and halt the growth of carbon dioxide emissions in the process.
Novozymes plays a crucial role in this strategy, and I was very pleased to be present in January with your ambassador at the groundbreaking for the extension of the headquarters of Novozymes North America in North Carolina.
The Danish company currently supplies more than 50 percent of the commercial enzymes sold for ethanol production in the United States. Furthermore, Novozymes is engaged in a major research initiative to develop and trigger a rapid commercialization of cellulosic-based ethanol. This kind of ethanol represents a second-generation biofuel that is no longer based on edible crops such as corn and sugar. Second-generation biofuels are made from agricultural waste and non-food crops and therefore are critical in making biofuels a truly sustainable venture. Again, farsighted political leadership and innovative science are essential partners in this quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop alternative energy sources.
When President Bush and Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen met last summer at Camp David, climate change was high on their agenda, and they were right to be concerned. Climate change is one of the most serious challenges of our age, one that affects all countries, every man and woman on earth, and our children. Today's visit by the President to Nozozymes makes their concerns and the search for solutions tangible and realizable. It represents political decision making at its best in the form of decisions that touch the lives of ordinary people in a positive way. That is the real importance of what is happening today at Novozynes North America.