Transcript: Energy Secretary Sam Bodman

This is a partial transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," April 20, 2005, that was edited for clarity.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: President Bush's busy day also included a renewed push for strong energy policy.

The president lauding House Republicans for what he calls a balanced plan that will be taking up for a vote in a few days.

Energy Secretary Sam Bodman joins me out of Washington. Secretary, do we, should we worry about oil prices rocketing up again?

SAMUEL BODMAN, ENERGY SECRETARY: Neil, first of all, even at these levels, the president is very concerned about energy prices. Everybody here at the Energy Department worries about it and is focused on it. That's the reason we have been working with Congress to get an energy big passed, which we are very optimistic that we'll be able to do this time.

CAVUTO: All right. But even under the best of conditions, Secretary, if you allow for more exploration in Alaska and some of the other regions you allude to, it's many years in the offing before we see any bang for the buck, right?

BODMAN: Well, there are some things that have been done. The administration has raised the CAFE standards that will cause the industry over the next two or three years to be improving the gasoline mileage of its fleet.

There is the prospect next year and the year after of the availability of so-called clean diesel fuel, which can be utilized in new diesel automobiles, which themselves will produce 25 to 30 percent improvement in gasoline mileage. So, things near-term that are a little optimistic that we're tending to focus on.

But, to be sure, this is a problem, Neil, that's been created over years, if not decades. It's going to take years, if not decades, to solve it. And this energy bill that I alluded to before and that the president spoke about today is intended to do just that.

CAVUTO: But, Secretary, are you at all disarmed by the fact that, as long as this president has been president and has been pushing for reform on energy and fixing energy, he has had a Republican Senate and House to do it, and nothing. It seems to me like there's no safety in numbers here.

BODMAN: Well, last year, we had to deal with a filibuster the last time that this bill was considered.

CAVUTO: Right.

BODMAN: And I'm very hopeful that we will be able to avoid that this year. We're reaching out in a bipartisan fashion, particularly in the Senate, where there are a variety of views on these matters.

And so, I am hopeful that we will be successful. I can tell you that this president has been very insistent on it. He called a meeting of congressional leadership yesterday. He had four members from the Republican Party, four from the Democratic Party. I attended the meeting. And he was very explicit in his desires to get a bill this summer.

CAVUTO: All right. Secretary Bodman, we'll see what happens, the energy secretary of the United States.

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