Bush lists ways to reach energy security

EUCLID, Ohio, July 29 (UPI) -- The United States has options to become less dependent on foreign oil, President George Bush said Friday, but Congress must act now for the future.

Opening environmentally sensitive areas to oil exploration, streamlining the permitting process for new refineries and developing shale oil technologies won't make the United States less dependent on foreign oil overnight, Bush said in a speech at Euclid, Ohio.

"But it will certainly send a clear signal to the markets that the United States is no longer going to sit on the sidelines, that we're going to use our new technologies to find hydrocarbons right here in the continental United States," he told an audience at Lincoln Electric Co. after touring the facility

Other ways to achieve energy efficiency include use of wind, solar and nuclear power as well as exploring clean-coal technologies, Bush said.

"But I'm here to talk about the meantime, the interim, the right now," Bush said. "And if the United States of America cares about how much gasoline -- the price of gasoline, then we better get out there finding some supplies of oil and gas."

Bush called on the Democratic leadership in Congress "to pass good legislation on behalf of the consumers of the United States of America."