Welcome. Thank you all for coming. And I want to say how honored I am to be joined this morning by a very distinguished group of leaders: Sharing the podium with me today are Jack Smith, Chairman of General Motors' Dieter Zetsche, President and CEO of the Chrysler Group and Will Boddie, Vice President of Global Core Engineering for Ford and Senator Carl Levin. I also want to recognize Representatives John Conyers, John Dingell, Joe Knollenberg, Sander Levin, and Lynn Rivers who are with us today. Thank you all for coming.

I also want to thank Governor John Engler for his energetic leadership and support of this important initiative for the auto industry. The Governor has a prior commitment in Lansing and is unable to attend today, but I want to acknowledge his assistance.

I am pleased to be here today to announce a new public-private partnership between my Department and the Nation's automobile manufactures to promote the development of hydrogen as a primary fuel for cars and trucks, as part of our effort to reduce American dependence on foreign oil.

Under this new program, which we call FreedomCAR, the government and the private sector will fund research into advanced, efficient fuel cell technology which uses hydrogen to power automobiles without creating any pollution.

The long-term results of this cooperative effort will be cars and trucks that are more efficient, cheaper to operate, pollution-free and competitive in the showroom.

This plan is rooted in President Bush's call, issued last May in our National Energy Plan, to reduce American reliance on foreign oil through a balance of new domestic energy production and new technology to promote greater energy efficiency.

The idea of bringing together the public and private sectors to develop more efficient and affordable automobiles is also something I worked on very hard with Sen. Levin and others when I was in the U.S. Senate. As Secretary of Energy I am excited about continuing that work and promoting the promise offered by fuel cell technology to help us achieve an entirely new generation of vehicles.

My enthusiasm was given a boost last summer when I toured the Department's Argonne National Lab near Chicago, to see its work on fuel cells. A first generation fuel cell, like the one pictured here, took up an entire wall. But now you can see we have developed fuel cells that are much smaller but just as powerful. As I often say, we are at the point where a fuel cell is no longer the size of a minivan, but more like the size of a seat in that minivan. And they're getting smaller and more economical all the time.

FreedomCAR isn't an automobile … it's a new approach to powering the cars of the future. The C-A-R in FreedomCAR stands for Cooperative Automotive Research and it will be a big win for everyone.

For consumers it means more fuel-efficient cars and trucks that are cheaper to operate. Families will no longer have to factor in the cost of gasoline in their budgets, in their vacation plans, or in what type of vehicle they buy. The gas-guzzler will be a thing of the past.

Growing up in Michigan with a father and father-in-law who both worked on the assembly line, I know first hand what the automobile business means for families and our nation's economy.

For the auto industry and its workers FreedomCAR means a bright future.

For the environment it means less pollution from cars and trucks and it means cleaner air. Automobiles powered by pure hydrogen fuel cells emit no pollution and no carbon dioxide. The only exhaust is water. That's a monumental change.

For energy security it means we will no longer have to depend so heavily on imported oil from unstable regions of the world. Transportation consumes 67 percent of all the petroleum we use, forcing us to import some 10 million barrels of oil each day. But even though we are a buyer on the world market, we are a buyer with choices. And one of those choices is to use the technological genius found in private industry and at our national laboratories to invent our way to energy independence.

The FreedomCAR is a long-term research program aimed at developing a fuel-cell operating system for tomorrow's cars and trucks. It looks to fundamental research and development.

This program has a long, but realistic time horizon. Our vision spans several decades as together the Department of Energy and the automobile industry look to develop cost effective hydrogen fuel cells.

And although FreedomCAR is a long-term effort, we will not allow the program to drift. We will have strict and enforceable measures of success and near-term goals that will guide us and keep the program on track.

FreedomCAR replaces and greatly improves upon the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicle program.

Like the old PNGV program, FreedomCAR will be a public-private partnership, combining the talents of the DOE's National Labs with the impressive scientific know-how of industry and the technological innovations being pioneered at the nation's top research universities.

But that's about it as far as similarities go. The PNGV wasn't cost effective and it wasn't moving a competitive automobile to the showroom. It certainly had a desirable goal - an 80 mile per gallon vehicle - but it wasn't at all clear this vehicle would appeal to consumer tastes.

What's more, the PNGV program was still wedded to gasoline as an essential source of power. We can do better than that. We can look beyond current technology and current fuels to a truly new generation of vehicles.

That is the direction we are headed. My friends here today share my great enthusiasm for this project. And they share my great enthusiasm for what we can accomplish.

A vision like this can transform everything - the way industry and government work together, the kinds of fuels we use, and the kinds of cars we buy. And a vision like FreedomCAR will bring consumers more choice, more efficient vehicles, and huge savings. That's why we have such a strong partnership represented here today, and why I am certain that partnership will succeed.

Thank you everyone for coming. My Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, David Garman, and I will remain here to answer your questions.

For more facts on the FreedomCAR, see the
FreedomCAR Fact Sheet