President Bush talked about the farm bill, higher food and energy costs, expanding domestic oil production, ethanol and other alternative energy sources during a press briefing on Tuesday morning.
The president was critical of Congress blocking efforts to explore in ANWR and to expand capacity and build more refineries, as well as a “massive, bloated farm bill that would do little to solve the problem” of higher food prices. He indicated they were considering a summer moratorium on the federal gas tax to help alleviate pain at the pump and he defended the use of ethanol for economic and energy security.
“The high price of gasoline is going to spur more investment in ethanol as an alternative to gasoline,” Bush said. “And the truth of the matter is it’s in our national interests that our farmers grow energy, as opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us.”
In reaction to the question, why haven’t you put more resources into renewable energy research, Bush responded.
“We’ve put a lot into ethanol. As a matter of fact, the solution to the issue of corn-fed ethanol is cellulosic ethanol, which is a fancy word for saying we’re going to make ethanol out of switchgrasses, or wood chips. And we’re spending a lot of money along those lines.
But energy policy needs to be comprehensive. And we got to understand we’re in a transition period. The problem is there’s been a lot of focus by the Congress in the intermediate steps and in the long-term steps — the long-term steps being hydrogen; the intermediate steps being biofuels, for example, and researching the biofuels, and battery technology — but not enough emphasis on the here and now.”
Regarding food price inflation, Bush said that “85 percent of the world’s food prices are caused by weather, increased demand and energy prices — just the cost of growing product.” The president said the United States is concerned about the scarcity of food in poorer countries and will continue to be generous in food donations abroad.
Speaking to farm broadcasters meeting in Washington, Schafer said managing the blending of energy and agriculture is one of the top priorities for USDA. “If we over the next ten years could convert one-fourth of the four billion barrels of foreign oil that we import into this country into biofuels, not only would it increase the security of our country, it would double farm income,” said Schafer. “You can imagine if we doubled farm income in this country, what a revitalization would take place in rural areas.”
Seed giant Monsanto and Mendel Biotechnology are teaming up to develop a variety of grass seeds ideal for ethanol and biodiesel production.
The biodiesel-powered boat has started on its round-the-world journey… again. As you might remember, it was nearly a year ago that the “Earthrace” had to abandon its attempt to break the world record for circumnavigation of the globe in a boat.
According to VeraSun’s Don Endres, “With fuel prices where they’re at, with diesel prices where they’re at, we need more fuel, and this will go right into the biodiesel market, fit right into that fuel stream so it’s a much more highly-valued in the fuel stream then, what it is as oil in the fuel.” 
A tentative agreement reached by conference committee members on funding for a new farm bill would reduce the tax incentive for blenders to use ethanol from 51 cents a gallon to 45 cents. The president of the 
“We do understand that they are looking at that in order to pay for cellulosic tax credits and some other important programs,” said Bob Dinneen in an interview Monday. “While we wish they could find other means of paying for those important priorities, we understand the budget constraints that Congress is under.”
