VentureBeat

In his State of the Union, the President proposed to reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent over 10 years — through improved vehicle fuel standards and greater use of alternative fuels such as ethanol.

He refers to the “serious challenge of global climate change.” See summary of his address here.

Check out start-up Pluggd’s audio search on the Speech. Click on the image below, and then type in “ethanol,” for example, and a heat map on the audio file will show you the climate-change part of the President’s speech (move your cursor over the yellow part of the heat map, and click to listen).

Pluggd is very useful, because it searches for terms and phrases that are related to your term (in this case, ethanol) — and you’ll find it covers the entire portion of the President’s comments on energy policy. So you’ll find how he calls to expand ethanol and other alternative fuel production to 35 billion gallons per year by 2017, five times higher than previously stated goals, somethig not covered in most press reports. (See our early review of Pluggd here). You can also search the Democratic response from James Webb.

TechNet, a grouping of high-tech CEOs, applauded the President’s speech for his “heightened focus on advanced energy technologies, including alternative and renewable fuels.” In a recent poll, TechNet found that three in four American voters believe the nation should do more to encourage green technologies to help lessen our reliance on foreign energy sources.

Finally, great summary here about the political wrangling on the Democratic side of Congress, and how Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to shake up old-guard ways.

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