Remarks Following a Tour of United Solar Ovonic in Auburn Hills, Michigan,
February 20, 2006

I just had a interesting tour of United Solar here in the State of Michigan. I also had thehonor of meeting the inventor of a lot of the technology and the machines here. A couple of things struck me. One, solar technology is commercial and—particularly because they’ve figured out ways to make long rolls of this photovoltaic technology. That’s important to help us achieve a major goal, which is to become less dependent on foreign sources of oil.

I spent the day earlier in Wisconsin, where I was able to see some amazing technologies that will help us change the way we drive our automobiles. This technology right here is going to help us change the way we live in our homes. The ultimate goal is to have solar technology on your home, and that home will become a little power-generating unit unto itself, and that if you have extra electricity, that you could put it back in your grid, so you become a power producer, but you’re using renewable sources of energy to power your homes and to fire up your refrigerators. And this is real. I really am thankful that the folks of this company gave me a chance to come and visit about it.

The role of the Government at this point is to continue to spend research dollars to help push technologies forward, is to get these technologies to be even more competitive in the marketplace. And I’m calling on Congress to join us on this most important energy initiative. As most folks know, there’s a lot of needless politics in Washington, DC. There’s a lot of finger pointing and a lot of zero-sum attitude amongst the people up there. And of all the issues, becoming less dependent on foreign sources of energy is an issue that we ought to be able to unite and show the American people we can work together to help advance the technologies that will change the world in which we live.

I am very excited about what I’ve seen here. I’m excited about the future, because we’ve got great inventors and great entrepreneurs here in our own country, preparing for ways to enable the American people to get rid of our addition to oil. And that will not only enhance our economic security but enhance our national security as well.

Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 4:18 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to Subhendu Guha, president and chief operating officer, United Solar Ovonic.