President Bush Addresses the 2008 Annual Meeting of the West Virginia Coal Association

See I can think you can spend it better than those of us in Washington, D.C., can spend it. I'd rather have you trying to figure out what's best for your family than the government trying to figure out what's best for your family. So the stimulus package was all part of making sure that we dealt with this slowdown that was coming.

And people believe that the stimulus package should have a positive effect in the third quarter. Of course, you can listen to these economists, on the one hand they'll say, and then on the other hand -- if they had three hands, it would be on the one hand, the second hand and the third hand. (Laughter.) The stimulus package has been positive.

There's other good economic news. Productivity increases are up, which makes America -- our goods more competitive. I think you understand the definition of productivity increases in your own industry. You've seen the change, mighty change take place in your businesses. Workers are more productive, and your businesses are more competitive as a result.

Exports are on the rise. Durable good orders are strong. What that means is that -- that suggests that businesses are anticipating a better second half of the year. So I believe the foundations of this economy are strong. I think with sound policies and the ingenuity of the American people, we're going to emerge better and stronger. We've done it in the past and we'll do it again this time. (Applause.)

You know, one of the challenges is energy prices. It's energy prices today. Another challenge is to make sure we've got energy for tomorrow as well. I'm a big believer in technology and innovation. I'm going to spend a little time today talking about how technology can change basic industry to keep us competitive and to keep us economically viable in the future.

I also want to emphasize that the energy -- the best energy we have is the ingenuity of the American people, the hard-working, enterprising, entrepreneurial people that get up every single day to make a living for their families and to contribute to the economic vitality of the country.

I want to talk about electricity and I want to talk about fuel we need for our cars and trucks. In order for this country to be economically competitive beyond my time and time of some of the others around here, we need to be -- make sure we've got a reliable supply of electricity. You can't grow your economy, you can't provide hope for your people, you can't afford to buy new -- spend money on new technologies unless you have a strong economy. And part of that strong economy is to make sure we have reliable sources of electricity. And there's no more reliable source of electricity than coal. (Applause.)

Coal is affordable and coal is available right here in the United States of America. Coal allows us to keep our prices reasonable, and it provides jobs. It provides jobs for hard-working people right here in the great state of West Virginia and other states as well. (Applause.)

We use about 1.1 billion tons of coal a year. That sounds like a lot to me. It -- and so the challenge is, how do we make sure that this reliable source of U.S. energy remains in the center of our strategy? I believe the best way to do that is for the government to invest in clean coal research and development. (Applause.)

Buck just wasn't down there to have lunch. (Laughter.) He said, do you understand the promise of clean coal technology and will you support it? I said I will. As a matter of fact, I didn't say it just to him; I've said it throughout this state -- not one time, but many times.

This year -- I mean, since we've been in office we've spent $2.5 billion on clean coal research. Why? Because it's a good investment to make sure that an abundant supply of energy is available and is in use for a long time coming. That's why we're doing it.

This year alone we've requested nearly $650 million in the budget for advanced coal research. It's the largest such request in 25 years. The funding is supported -- is supporting the development of technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions that come from coal. This is something the industry wants the government to do. We want us to be on the leading edge of change. We want to be able to capture CO2. These advances obviously are going to make coal more environmentally friendly. It'll make it easier for people to say, let's use this abundant resource.