ST LOUIS (Reuters) - President Bush on Thursday said that falling gasoline prices are "good news" for consumers, but said he was worried that lower pump costs would stunt development of alternative energy fuels. "My worry is, however, that a low price of gasoline will ... make us complacent about our future when it comes to energy," Bush said at a government-sponsored renewable energy conference in St. Louis.
The national price for regular unleaded gasoline dropped 5 cents over the past week and 78 cents in the last nine weeks to $2.26 a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration's weekly survey of service stations.
That's the lowest price since mid-February after prices hit a summer high of $3.04 a gallon in early August.
Bush said the United States was "too dependent" on foreign oil, and that developing alternative energy fuels, like cheaper ethanol, would help the U.S. economy and improve the nation's energy security.
