Laser Therapy

Laser Therapy (also known as photobiomodulation, low-level laser therapy, cold laser therapy, and laser biostimulation) is an emerging medical and veterinary technique in which exposure to low-level laser light can stimulate or inhibit cellular function leading to beneficial clinical effects. Laser therapy is any treatment using intense beams of light to precisely cut, burn, or destroy tissue. The term laser is an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.”

The laser is used for many medical purposes. Because the laser beam is so small and precise, it enables doctors to safely treat tissue without injuring the surrounding area. Lasers may be used to remove growths or cauterize blood vessels. They may also be used during eye surgery. Clinical applications include treating soft tissue injury, chronic pain, wound healing and nerve regeneration, and possibly even resolving viral and bacterial infections. A promising clinical application is the treatment of inflammation, where the anti- inflammatory effect of location-and-dose-specific laser irradiation produces similar outcomes as NSAIDs, but without potentially harmful side-effects.

Laser surgery uses a laser light source to remove diseased tissues or treat bleeding blood vessels. The laser may also be used for cosmetic purposes, including removal of wrinkles, tattoos, or birthmarks.

Laser surgery can be used, for example, to:
Remove tumors (brain, liver)
With minimal damage to surrounding healthy tissue
With minimal scarring
Seal small blood vessels to reduce blood loss
Seal lymph vessels to reduce swelling and decrease the spread of tumor cells
Seal nerve endings to reduce postoperative pain
Remove warts, moles, and tattoos
Reduce the appearance of skin wrinkles, scars, and other skin blemishes
Remove hair

As with any type of surgery, laser surgery is not without risks. Possible problems include incomplete treatment of the problem, pain, infection, bleeding, scarring, and skin color changes. Some laser surgery is performed under general anesthesia.

A laser is a light beam that can be precisely focused. It is used to treat tissues by heating the targeted cells until they “burst.” There are several types of lasers, including the carbon dioxide (CO2) laser, the YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) laser, and the pulsed dye laser. Each laser has specific uses. The color of the light beam used is directly related to the type of surgery being performed and the color of the tissue being treated.

The combination of wavelength, intensity, duration and treatment interval is complex with different diseases, injuries and dysfunctions needing different parameters and techniques. Certain wavelengths of light at certain intensities will aid tissue regeneration, resolve inflammation, relieve pain and boost the immune system. It is thought that the mechanism is photochemical rather than heat-related. Observed biological and physiological effects include changes in cell membrane permeability, regulation of adenosine triphosphate and nitric oxide.

Variable factors include: effective wavelength, dose, dose-rate effects, beam penetration, coherence and pulses (peak power and repetition rates). Laser average power is typically in the range of 1-500 mW; some high peak power, short pulse width devices are in the range of 1-100 W with typically 200 ns pulse widths. The average beam irradiance then is typically 10 mW/cm2 - 5 W/cm2. The wavelength is typically in the range 600-1000 nm but some products are available outside this range.

Laser Therapy

Novel Facet Passivation Reactor Enables Higher Power Semiconductor Lasers

June 18, 2003… STOCKHOLM, Sweden
Comlase has introduced a novel passivation and facet coating reactor that utilizes the company’s proprietary Native Nitride Ion Beam Epitaxy (N2IBE) process to increase damage threshold, improve output power and extend lifetime of edge emitting semiconductor lasers. The N2IBE process utilizes nitrogen bombardment to eliminate surface oxides and impurities and nitridize any reactive chemical bonds within the device material, thus preventing oxidation during facet coating and subsequent operation. The result is a substantial increase in catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) threshold and laser reliability.

The N2IBE process is useful for a wide range of III-V semiconductor materials, including AlGaAs, GaAs, GaN, InGaN, InP, AlInGaAs, InGaP, InGaAsP, operating anywhere over the 400 nm to 1700 nm wavelength range.

The reactor itself consists of a load locked, stainless steel, ultra-high vacuum (10-9 Torr) chamber containing an ion gun for facet milling and passivation, and two electron-beam guns and effusion cells for producing antireflection (e.g. alumina) and high reflection (e.g. alumina/silicon) coatings. This construction allows all operations to be completed within a single run, and eliminates the need to break vacuum at any time during the process.

The system is nominally configured to work with 10 mm wide semiconductor laser bars, which have been cleaved in air, rather than under vacuum conditions. Batch sizes of 200 bars, together with short cycle time, make the system very compatible with high volume production environments.

Novel Facet Passivation Reactor Enables Higher Power Semiconductor Laser

McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective…

Happy Holidays!
Jo Ann McDonald,  founding editor

December 18, 2007…Throughout the world people are celebrating the winter holidays and the close of another year in a rich variety of ways. Here in the USA, Christmas tends to dominate, with extensive colorful decorations, the exchange of presents within families, goodies and cards to friends, and people wishing each other “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.” In our business, it’s a time when journalists traditionally step back, take a bit of a break due to a welcome shortage of actual news, and reflect on the year past, offering their take on how things might sort out in the year ahead.

Seasoned technology journalists, like me, are generally a forgiving lot when it comes to end of the year retrospectives and we tend to be rather optimistic about predicting how things might shake out in the coming year. We tend to stay away from stories that underscore whatever the current economic challenge or political battleground might be and focus instead on the fact that the compound semi industry is almost uniquely international and truly contributing to the overall betterment of the earth and its inhabitants. Tech reporters generally stick to business as usual. Company X introduces a new product. Company Y gets a new order. Company Z acquires Company X, and works out a joint venture with Company Y. Materials get ever more pure, devices get ever faster and smaller, systems get smarter, and end products become more affordable. That begs the question: How can we actually assess the overall progress within the companies and labs we cover?

It’s never been easy. Not until I spent a few years in the late 1990s consulting to Emcore as their director of corporate communications did I discover how much journalists weren’t told. Those of you who work inside any of the companies know that what goes out to the general public is but a mere fraction of what actually transpires. Monitoring and managing corporate and lab “news” is the sole domain of upper management and their communications agents. About the only barometers we journalists and commentators can apply is our relationship with actual people inside and by looking closely at publicly held companies. Believe it our not, some of us actually read your annual reports. And in the case of USA publicly held companies, all must now be accurately revealed in an annual report. The SEC is getting very good at making sure that’s so. In my case, I have a decided advantage because, as many of you know, in the Spring of 2005, back when we were all convinced that tech stocks had hit their rock bottom low after the telecom bust, I put together a modest stock portfolio of what I felt was a handful of representative companies in the sectors we cover in our two online publications, CompoundSemi News and LIGHTimes.

As longtime readers understand, I’ve always reported any buys or sells at least 30 days prior to any trading. For a variety of reasons, I haven’t reported on the overall progress of that portfolio for quite awhile. (Not much action… other topics took priority… the cat ate my homework). To recap, I originally bought 100 shares of a dozen or so companies that I felt would be good longterm holds worthy of providing my readers interesting information as they progressed back up the ladder to profitability. With limited funds, I also had to concentrate on what I thought were really low buy-in prices, Cree and Color Kinetics being the only two in double digits at the time. Two of the original buys, Color Kinetics and TIR Systems, were acquired by Philips in 2007. The automatic buyout of CK stock by Philips netted me a handsome $2,273 profit in August and on TIR $25 in July. The only stocks I’ve sold (as pre-announced) were Vitesse and WJ Communications due to consistently poor performance, plus changes in those companies basic makeup that put them more out of the compounds than in. That leaves me with the following (in alphabetic order, followed by their Nasdaq symbol, followed by the + gain or - loss in US dollars since original purchase ): Aixtron (AIXG +$905), Anadigics (ANAD +$921), AXT (AXTI +$315), Cree (CREE -$111), Emcore (EMKR +$916), JDS Uniphase (JDSU +$6), Kopin (KOPN -$113), RF Micro Devices (RFMD +$72), Spire (SPIR +$1,795) and TriQuint (TQNT +$306.00).

It’s interesting to see how these ten companies have performed since mid-2005, especially when viewed together. Overall, I think they’ve done quite well, and if you include Color Kinetics, they did extremely well when compared to the overall USA-based stock picture, yielding an average of just over 10% profit (or “gain”) per year. The super winners were clearly Color Kinetics, Spire and Anadigics, in that order. The only two that have performed poorly, showing a loss with their minus sign instead of a plus, are Kopin and Cree, with JDSU up just $6. Imagine if I’d been able to afford the type original buy-in normal investors ante up, which is usually 1000 shares at a minimum! If you add another zero to each of those totals, you have to agree it would be quite an impressive overall portfolio.

I love it when I can say “I told you so!” to stock brokers and their analysts (not to mention investors). And that’s what I’m saying now, in retrospective. “I told you so…” putting my own money where my mouth was in 2005 when starting this experiment. What I told people, and what I continue to underscore in this column space is that you have to have faith in the core companies behind what I genuinely feel is an outstanding (and not always fully understood nor properly appreciated) rather eccentric niche of extremely interesting advanced semiconductor technologies. What we do is really quite simple. We do what silicon cannot, and in progressively more cases, we help enable silicon by coexisting with it on starting wafers and in progressively more end systems. We do what is often thought of as the impossible. It just takes a little extra time and patience to prove that what we’re contributing to the world is what the world really wants and needs: extraordinary performance, above and beyond what’s normally possible.

What pleases me most about the overall performance of the compound semi industry is that we’re truly on track with energy saving “new” technologies. I only wish more CS companies that are playing in the terrestrial solar concentrator market advanced solar industry, LEDs for solid state lighting and UV LEDs and LDs for applications like water purification were publicly held so the outside world would become even more cognizant of our CS industry’s contributions. Emcore and Spire are leading the way in advanced CS-based solar cells, and both have been brilliant pioneering companies in the field. I look forward to hearing continued good things from them and the follow-on “green” companies that have recently come on the scene, and from those in the supply chain that make that success possible.

That’s my wish for this holiday season… that even more people in the general public and investment communities will really grasp the concept that we simply have to get serious about keeping environmentally friendly solutions to the forefront of our technology priorities and do all we can to help wean the world off oil while preserving our fragile environments. So when you call for a toast during the holidays, toast yourselves and say… “Job well done (so far)… and here’s to contributing even more in the coming years.”

From all of us here at CompoundSemi Online Inc., Happy Holidays!

If you have questions about the solid state lighting and compound semiconductor industries or have news or views to share, I’m Jo Ann McDonald, Editor of LIGHTimes and CompoundSemi News.
Feel free to contact me directly, anytime.
My direct tel at the ranch is
+1-325-463-5345

President Bush Signs Law Mandating Incandescent Phase-Out
Scott McMahan

December 19, 2007…Today, President George Bush Signed H.R. 6, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. In remarks to the press, the President said, “Today we make a major step with the Energy Independence and Security Act. We make a major step toward reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure.” He commented, “The bill … includes revisions to improve energy efficiency in lighting and appliances.”

The new federal law provides dramatic and sweeping changes to building requirements, fuel efficiency requirements, and lighting. Among many parts for consumers and businesses, the legislation proposes tax credits for plug-in vehicles and fuel economy standards of 35 MPG for automobiles by 2020. The act gives a big boost to the the solid state lighting industry in the United States by mandating the phase-out of inefficient incandescent bulbs in favor of more efficient lighting solutions such a compact fluorescent and LEDs. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members…

Emcore to Purchase Intel’s Optical Platform Division
CompoundSemi News Staff

December 19, 2007…Emcore Corporation and Intel Corporation have reached a definitive agreement for Emcore to acquire the telecom-related portion of Intel’s Optical Platform Division for $85 million. Emcore will acquire the intellectual property, assets, and technology relating to tunable lasers, tunable transponders, 300-pin transponders, and integrable tunable laser assemblies. The transaction is subject to regulatory review and certain other closing conditions. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2008. Emcore says that the acquisition will enhance its presence in the telecommunications market segment and expand its fiber optics product portfolio.

“This transaction represents an important step for Emcore,” said Reuben Richards, CEO, Emcore. “We are excited about this acquisition and the opportunity to continue building upon Intel’s leading tunable laser technology, strong product quality and history of customer service and satisfaction. The acquired assets should drive substantial product cost reduction, and the combined product portfolio should enable Emcore to gain a greater share of customer spending. Emcore estimates these assets will generate $65 million of revenue in 2008, and believes this acquisition will accelerate its path to earnings per share profitability as expected in mid-2008.”

According to Intel, the sale of its telecom-related assets allows the company to focus its on core communications and embedded market segments. In addition to this announced transaction, Intel is currently exploring strategic alternatives regarding the enterprise-focused portion of its Optical Platform Division. Company News Release

AXT to Supply IQE with GaAs Substrates

December 19, 2007…AXT, Inc., a compound semiconductor substrate maker headquartered in Fremont, California USA, has struck a deal to supply IQE semi-insulating gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrates. The agreement to meet IQE’s 2008 worldwide substrate requirements is valued at approximately $15.1 million, with an option to purchase an additional $3.5 million of substrates. According to AXT, all substrates ordered under the contract are to be shipped by the end of 2008. IQE ordered primarily 6-inch semi-insulating GaAs substrates. IQE offers a wafers with a range of products for a wide variety of applications. The wafers and products are supported by an outsourced foundry services portfolio that makes the company a ‘one stop shop’ for wafer needs.

“AXT is well positioned to be able to accommodate IQE’s increasing demand, particularly in larger diameter gallium arsenide substrates,” said Drew Nelson, president and chief executive officer of IQE. “Its expansive manufacturing capacity, unique raw material capability and broad product portfolio make it an ideal partner to support our strong growth plans for 2008.” AXT News Release

Setup of Ascent Solar’s New PV Manufacturing Line Proceeding on Schedule

December 19, 2007…Ascent Solar of Littleton, Colorado USA, a developer of thin-film photovoltaic modules, delivered and completed installation of all equipment required to finish the integration of its 1.5MW production facility. According to the company, testing, integration, and qualification of the new production line is set to begin in January 2008. The company also noted that product qualification and certifications are scheduled to begin after the line is completely integrated and it achieves initial operating capacities.

Matthew Foster, President and CEO, commented, “We are very pleased to have these complex tools delivered and installed right on schedule. This significant event completes Ascent Solar’s first major milestone and our entire team is excited to now enter the next stage of our commercial development.” Mr. Foster further stated that “we have also been very fortunate this year in receiving additional capital through a strategic investment from Hydro and conversion of our Class A public warrants. With this additional capital, the company was able to start the development of its high-volume 100MW plant ahead of schedule. We plan to place orders for machine procurement to build our first 25MW line some time in the second quarter of 2008 and we currently envision the 25MW facility completion by year-end 2009.” Company News Release

Nanosolar Ships First Commercial Panels
CompoundSemi News Staff

December 19, 2007…Nanosolar, reports that after five years of product development the company has shipped its first product and has received its first product revenue. According to the company, the complete product development included science research and development, manufacturing process development, product engineering, manufacturing engineering and tool development, and factory construction. The company credits its creative team with the development achievement. A company spokesperson said in a news release, “We are grateful to everyone who supported us through all these years and the many occasions where there appeared to be mile-high concrete walls in our path; the unusual intensity and creativity of our team deserves all the credit for achieving this major milestone today.”

The company listed the achievements that went into the device’s design including: the world’s first printed thin-film solar cell in a commercial panel product; the world’s first thin-film solar cell with a low-cost back-contact capability; the world’s lowest-cost solar panel – which we believe will make us the first solar manufacturer capable of profitably selling solar panels at as little as $.99/Watt; the world’s highest-current thin-film solar panel – delivering five times the current of any other thin-film panel on the market today and thus simplifying system deployment; And an intensely systems-optimized product with the lowest balance-of-system cost of any thin-film panel – due to innovations in design we have included. Company News Release

Bandwidth Semiconductor Renamed Spire Semiconductor
CompoundSemi News Staff

December 17, 2007…Spire Corporation of Bedford, Massachusetts USA, a provider of turnkey solar cell manufacturing equipment, has has chosen to rename its subsidiary, Bandwidth Semiconductor to Spire Semiconductor. Bandwidth Semiconductor has done some pioneering work in gallium arsenide solar cells for space applications. Spire Corporation says that the name change will help its subsidiary be more aligned with its overall solar energy focus on terrestrial applications. The newly named company, Spire Semiconductor, will enter the GaAs solar concentrator cell market, but it will continue to offer its foundry and processing services.

“GaAs solar cell activities are growing at Spire Semiconductor and are supplementing revenue growth from its portfolio of defense, biomedical and consumer products,” said Roger G. Little, Spire’s chairman and chief executive officer. “This operation has held a pioneering position in the field and in the future we intend to place even more emphasis on the solar concentrator cell market. As Spire Semiconductor, this operation will be better integrated with Spire Corporation and share Spire’s vision as a world leader in the terrestrial solar energy industry.” Spire Corporation News Release

E-Band Communications Gets Funding
CompoundSemi News Staff

December 17, 2007…E-Band Communications Corporation (EBCC), a developer of ultra-high capacity millimeter wave wireless transmission systems, has raised $10 million in its series B financing round. Reliance Technology Ventures Ltd. led the funding round. The round also included investment from ADC telecommunications, Express Ventures, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc., Investec, and a major wireless carrier. The company leverages a proprietary gallium arsenide-based wireless technology that enables multi-gigabit capacity wireless transmission for customers including wireless service providers.

“E-band is a technology whose time has come,” said CEO and co-founder of E-Band Communications, Sam Smookler. “Uniquely capable of delivering gigabits of bandwidth over the air, E-band is positioned to satisfy numerous high-speed broadband network and access applications. Our newly developed proprietary integrated chipset utilizing leading-edge gallium arsenide high-speed processes enables us to bring the highest performance products to market at the most cost-effective price point.” “The 70/80 GHz millimeter-wave spectrum, in which we operate, enables E-Band to reach fiber-equivalent wireless transmission speeds ranging from 1 Gigabit per second up to 10 Gigabits per second,” said Saul Umbrasas, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer. “With the growing adoption of pure IP networks and wireless broadband technologies such as WiMAX and 4th Generation cellular technologies, E-Band wireless systems will be used to concentrate and backhaul the vast amounts of digital IP-based wireless traffic and serve as a substitute for fiber in last mile metropolitan access networks.” Company News Release

Northrup Grumman Researchers Develop Terahertz Transistor
CompoundSemi News Staff

December 12, 2007…Nothrop Grumman Corporation of Redondo Beach, California USA, reports setting a record for the fastest transistor. Engineers have been attempting to produce ultra-fast transistors for some time. Such a device could provide much higher frequency and bandwidth capabilities for future military communications, radar, and intelligence applications. Nothrop Grumman says it is the first to succeed in producint a terahertz tansistor; It is an InP high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) with a maximum frequency of over 1000 gigahetz.

Richard Lai led the group of researchers at Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector on the project. On Monday, Richard Lai explained how his group developed the terahertz-speed transistor in a technical paper delivered at the 2007 International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Electron Devices Society of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California conducted tests which validated the ultra-fast transistor. They measured a three-stage millimeter wave integrated circuit amplifier at 340 gigahertz with greater than 15 decibel gain.

“This represents, to the best of our knowledge, the state of the art in high frequency transistor capability,” according to Dwight Streit, vice president, Technical Development and Microelectronics Technology at the company’s Space Technology sector. “These advancements will enable a new generation of military and commercial applications that operate at higher frequencies with improved performance.” Company News Release

Dow Corning Division Gets Continuation of SiC Substrate Development Contract
CompoundSemi News Staff

December 12, 2007…The U.S. Office of Naval Research has awarded Dow Corning Compound Semiconductor Solutions (DCCSC) $4.2 million to develop semiconductor silicon carbide (SiC) materials technology. The contract is a continuation of the $3.6 million contract awarded to the company in December 2005. The new contract will allow the company to continue developing methods of producing quality SiC substrates of up to 100mm in diameter. SiC has unique electrical and thermal properties that can be used to produce high efficiency, high power, and high frequency devices including: advanced radar systems, cell phone base stations, hybrid electric vehicles, and power grid networks. While many companies have been working with SiC for some time, the cost of manufacturing has prevented more widespread adoption of the material and the technology.

“The first phase of this program has met all its key objectives and advanced the technology of SiC significantly,” said James Helwick, global director, new business development programs, Advanced Technologies & Ventures Business for Dow Corning. “We’re expecting the second and later phases to help us further increase quality and reduce costs, which should pave the way for better-performing, more affordable SiC-based products that use even less energy.”

“SiC technology’s ultimate market success requires more than raw materials. Additional research and systems development also will be essential,” said Dow Corning Compound Semiconductor Solutions Chief Scientist Mark Loboda. “This program provides an ideal platform for government, leading academic research institutions and commercial organizations to collaborate and share resources to improve this promising technology.” Company News Release

Nanosolar Plans German Plant in Addition to California Location

December 12, 2007…Nanosolar of San Jose, California USA, is a company that produces thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide photovoltaic cells. Like several photovoltaic producers it has recently gained funding and plans expansion. The company has reportedly made plans to start a solar-panel assembly line in Luckenwalde, Germany, a town south of Berlin, according to an article in Greentech Media. This plant is in addition to the San Jose, California USA, 430 MW per year solar cell foundry that is scheduled to begin early production by the end of this year. Company CEO Martin Roscheisen confirmed Tuesday that the company has begun preparatory at the German site. The Luckenwalde plant is expected to begin making panels in the first quarter of next year. The production capacity of the plant will be in the range of “multi-100″ MW of photovoltaic cells produced annually, according Roscheisen. Roscheisen indicated that the Luckenwalde facility will begin production after the San Jose plant does.

Sony Gives Skyworks Green Partner Certification
CompoundSemi News Staff

December 10, 2007…Sony Corporation, 50 percent owner of mobile device maker Sony Ericson, has given Skyworks its Green Partner Certification. Sony designates suppliers as Green Partners based upon their help producing environmentally preferred products. Another important factor in Sony’s selection of Green Partners is their ability to meet an rules and regulations for environment-related substances included in parts and materials. Skyworks, which has long had a strong environmental policy, says that it has meet both regulatory and customer requirements for environmentally friendly production well in advance of mandated deadlines. The company notably first received the Sony’s Green Partner Certification in 2005.

“Skyworks is honored to be designated a Green Partner by Sony,” said Bruce Freyman, vice president of worldwide operations for Skyworks. “We are committed to the protection and preservation of the environment in all aspects of our business operations, and are pleased to be supporting Sony in their efforts to be environmentally responsible. We believe that our actions today have environmental impacts tomorrow.” Skyworks News Release

We are always looking forward to hearing from you.
Contact the news editor, Scott McMahan, with an email to
Editor - at - CompoundSemi.com or call +1 (512) 219-0158

Remarks by the President at Signing of H.R. 6, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007

WASHINGTON–BUSINESS WIRE

U.S. Department of Energy

10:25 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all. Mr. Secretary, thank you for that introduction. We’re all pleased to be here at the Department of Energy. I particularly want to thank the employees here for their daily efforts to help our country meet its energy needs. Thanks for your hard work. Sam, thank you for your leadership.

As Sam mentioned, I firmly believe this country needs to have a comprehensive energy strategy, and I appreciate the members of Congress for understanding that as well. Two years ago I was pleased to stand with members — many of whom are here — to sign a bill that was the first major energy security legislation in more than a decade. At the time I recognized that we needed to go even further. And so in my State of the Union I proposed an aggressive plan to reduce oil consumption of gasoline by 20 percent over 10 years.

Today we make a major step with the Energy Independence and Security Act. We make a major step toward reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure. (Applause.)

I do welcome members of the Cabinet who’ve joined us. I particularly want to thank the Speaker and the Leader. I appreciate your leadership on this important issue. (Applause.) Speaker Pelosi is here with Congressman Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader; welcome, Mr. Leader. (Applause.) Leader Reid has brought members of the Senate with him: Senator Inouye, Senator Bingaman, Senator Stevens — I think that’s Senator Domenici there is disguise — (laughter and applause) — looking pretty handsome, isn’t he? (Applause.) I appreciate Congressman Dingell and Congressman Markey, Congressman Gordon — these are all leaders on their respective committees that help bring this bill to my desk. I also want to welcome all the other members of Congress who have joined us. (Applause.)

One of the most serious long-term challenges facing our country is dependence on oil — especially oil from foreign lands. It’s a serious challenge. And members of Congress up here understand the challenge and so do I. Because this dependence harms us economically through high and volatile prices at the gas pump; dependence creates pollution and contributes to greenhouse gas admissions [sic]. It threatens our national security by making us vulnerable to hostile regimes in unstable regions of the world. It makes us vulnerable to terrorists who might attack oil infrastructure.

The legislation I am signing today will address our vulnerabilities and our dependence in two important ways. First, it will increase the supply of alternative fuel sources. Proposed an alternative fuel standard earlier this year. This standard would require fuel producers to include a certain amount of alternative fuels in their products. This standard would create new markets for foreign products used to produce these fuels. This standard would increase our energy security by making us less vulnerable to instability — to the instability of oil prices on the world market.

The bill I sign today takes a significant step because it will require fuel producers to use at least 36 billion gallons of biofuel in 2022. This is nearly a fivefold increase over current levels. It will help us diversify our energy supplies and reduce our dependence on oil. It’s an important part of this legislation, and I thank the members of Congress for your wisdom. (Applause.)

Second, the legislation also — will also reduce our demand for oil by increasing fuel economy standards. (Applause.) Last January, I called for the first statutory increase in fuel economy standards for automobiles since they were enacted in 1975. The bill I’m about to sign delivers on that request. It specifies a national standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, which will increase fuel economy standards by 40 percent and save billions of gallons of fuel. This bill also includes an important reform that I believe is essential to making sure that we realize this strategy. It allows the Department of Transportation to issue what are known as “attribute-based standards,” which will assure that increased fuel efficiency does not come at the expense of automobile safety. This is an important part of this bill, and again I thank the members for taking the lead. (Applause.)

The bill also includes revisions to improve energy efficiency in lighting and appliances. It adopts elements of the executive order I signed requiring federal agencies to lead by example in efficiency and renewable energy use.

Taken together, all these measures will help us improve our environment. It is estimated that these initiatives could reduce projected CO2 emissions by billions of metric tons. At the U.N. climate change meeting in Bali last week our nation promised to pursue new, quantifiable actions to reduce carbon emissions. Today we’re doing just that. The legislation I’m signing today will lead to some of the largest CO2 emission cuts in our nation’s history. (Applause.)

The legislation I’m about to sign should say to the American people that we can find common ground on critical issues. And there’s more we can accomplish together. New technologies will bring about a new era of energy. So I appreciate the fact that Congress, in the omnibus spending bill that I’m going to sign later on, recognizes that new technologies will help usher in a better quality of life for our citizens. And so we’re going to spend money on new research for alternative feedstocks for ethanol. I mean, we understand the hog growers are getting nervous because the price of corn is up. But we also believe strongly that research will enable us to use wood chips and switchgrass and biomass to be able to develop the ethanol necessary to help us realize the vision outlined in this bill.

I appreciate very much the fact that we’re going to fund additional research on new battery technologies to power plug-in hybrids. We’re spending money on innovative ways to capture solar power. We’re making — providing incentives for nuclear energy. If we’re serious about making sure we grow our economy and deal with greenhouse gases, we have got to expand nuclear power. (Applause.)

It is going to take time to transition to this new era. And we’re still going to need hydrocarbons. And I hope the Congress will continue to open access to domestic energy sources — certain parts of the outer continental shelf in ANWR. And to protect us against disruptions in our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

With these steps, particularly in the bill I’m about to sign, we’re going to help American consumers a lot. We’ll help them by diversifying our supplies, which will help lower energy prices. We’ll strengthen our security by helping to break our dependence on foreign oil. We’ll do our duty to future generations by addressing climate change.

And so I thank the members of Congress. I appreciate the fact that we’ve worked together, that we can show what’s possible in addressing the big issues facing our nation. This is a good bill and I’m pleased to sign it.