CHENNAI: United States President George W. Bush "is dedicated to moving forward" on the nuclear agreement with India "on its [agreement's] terms," according to James L. Connaughton, Chairman, Council on Environment Quality, U.S.

Asked about the extraneous conditions introduced in the Bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, which were not in the Joint Statement of July 18, 2005 by Mr. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the agreement of March 2, 2006 on the separation of military nuclear facilities from their civilian counterparts in India, Mr. Connaughton said: "We are working very closely with our legislature to achieve the broadest possible support so that this agreement is not [merely] between two leaders but a lasting agreement between two countries. Our legislature is actively engaged as your legislature, and it is a very positive and powerful development. And as they [the legislature of India and the U.S] understand the needs of the two countries, we are confident that a strong legislative package will be produced."

Mr. Connaughton's choice was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 14, 2001 and appointed by Mr. Bush four days later to serve as Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. In this capacity, he serves as the senior environmental, energy and natural resources adviser to the U.S. President. He is also director of the White House Office of Environmental Policy, which coordinates interagency implementation of environmental programmes. He was here on August 23.

Asked about the possibility of the U.S. Senate retaining the conditions in its Bill because many Republican Senators differ with Mr. Bush on the issue, he said: "The beauty of democracy is that we have debate, we have understanding and we usually address our problems."

Hydrogen economy

On the stress laid on a hydrogen economy by the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate and whether this would be possible in a couple of decades, he said: "First, we already know how to produce a lot of hydrogen. The challenge is in how to make effective use of that hydrogen in energy-using systems such as small industrial parks, homes, consumer goods and transportation."

There was a global effort to make hydrogen available for these applications on a commercial scale as early as possible. This was being done through the International Partnership on Hydrogen Economy. The U.S. was committed to providing $7 billion over five years to this and the amount was being matched by Asian and European companies and others.

Mr. Connaughton said he had driven several hydrogen-powered vehicles. The technology is available but expensive. Reliability must be examined for wide-scale use of hydrogen as a fuel. He denied that a hydrogen economy would remain a dream. "We are not working on a dream. We are working on a present reality on a technology that can be used."

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