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DOT 28-06
Contact: Brian Turmail, Tel.: (202) 366-4570
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
U.S. Transportation Chief Says “Energy Diet” Needed To Curb U.S. Oil
Addiction
Transportation industries will have to go on an “energy diet” to help end
America’s addiction to oil, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said
today while touring the TRW Automotive plant in Livonia, MI that makes
power-saving vehicle systems being developed to improve automobile fuel
efficiency.
The nation’s transportation chief said there are several innovative technologies
and practices under way to help achieve the energy goals spelled out by
President Bush during last month’s “State of the Union” speech.
“America is the most mobile society on earth, and that’s not going to change,”
Mineta said. “What is going to change,” he added, “is that our cars, trains,
airplanes and ships must use significantly less oil, if they use oil at all, to
move people and products in the future.”
At TRW, Mineta saw the latest in braking, steering and suspension systems under
development for use in new vehicles, all of them designed to use less power and
ultimately less fuel.
“Innovation has always been synonymous with transportation in America,” Mineta
noted. “Here at TRW and across the country innovative transportation industries
and providers are coming up with creative ideas to use less energy, but keep
America moving.”
He said the Bush Administration is doing its part to encourage new energy
technology, including the investment of nearly $10 billion since 2001 to develop
cleaner, cheaper and more reliable alternative energy sources, including
alternatives to gasoline and diesel fuels, better batteries for hybrid cars, and
pollution-free hydrogen fuel cells.
“Quitting oil does not mean that America quits moving,” Mineta said.
Mineta and his deputy secretary, Maria Cino, are on the road this week to
promote energy saving initiatives occurring in the nation’s transportation
industries. Mineta is scheduled to visit Omaha, NE this afternoon where
locomotive engineers are saving millions of gallons of diesel fuel just by
learning new techniques for driving their trains.
Cino will tour a plant in Malta, NY tomorrow where scientists are making
lightweight composite metals for more fuel-efficient automobile parts. She also
will visit Rhode Island where she will learn how the state’s switch from light
bulbs to LEDs in traffic signals is saving millions of watts of electricity and
hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
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