Bush Sips the Kool Aid at the CAFE
May 14th, 2007 | by Jersey McJones |From the WSJ…
Bush Statement on CAFE Standards…
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. Good afternoon. I just finished a meeting with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Secretaries of Transportation and Agriculture, and the Deputy Secretary of Energy. Thank you all for being here.
EPA Administrator Steven L. Johnson graduated from an Evangelical Christian college and worked in private labs. He advocated testing pesticides on humans. He’s a pro-scientist, though.
Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters is a career transportation bureaucrat who advocated privatising the highway system and using fees and tolls for public roads.
Secretary of Agriculture Michael O Johanns is a former Nebraska governor and Iowa ag bureaucrat.
Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell is a career GOP advisor and staffer for the likes of Pete Domenici and Ted Stevens.
We discussed one of the most serious challenges facing our country: our nation’s addiction to oil and its harmful impact on our environment. The problem is particularly acute in the transportation sector. Oil is the primary component of gasoline and diesel, and cars and trucks that run on these fuels emit air pollution and greenhouse gases.
Wow! Who got Bush the subscription to Discover?
Our dependence on oil creates a risk for our economy, because a supply disruption anywhere in the world could drive up American gas prices to even more painful levels. Our dependence on oil creates a threat to America’s national security, because it leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists who could attack oil infrastructure.
All things quite profitable to Bush and his friends.
For all these reasons, America has a clear national interest in reducing our dependence on oil. Over the past six years, my administration has provided more than $12 billion for research into alternative sources of energy. I’d like to thank the Congress for its cooperation in appropriating these monies. We now have reached a pivotal moment where advances in technology are creating new ways to improve energy security, strengthen national security and protect the environment.
I wonder if that’s the $12 billion in giveaways to Big Oil, who have had record profits since the arrival of Bush.
To help achieve all these priorities, I set an ambitious goal in my State of the Union: to cut America’s gasoline usage by 20% over the next 10 years. I call this goal 20-in-10, and I have said — sent to Congress a proposal that would meet it in two steps: First, this proposal will set a mandatory fuel standard that requires 35 billion gallons of renewable and other alternative fuels by 2017. That’s nearly five times the current target.
Five times? “(G)allons of renewable and other alternative fuels” is code-speak for Ethanol, Mr Johanns of Iowa and Nebraska knows well. Corn prices recently topped $4 a bushel, more than double the price of a few years ago.” “…America simply doesn’t have enough farmland to break its oil addiction. Corn ethanol production requires massive amounts of land. If America’s entire 2006 corn harvest of 70 million acres was used for ethanol, it would displace just 12 percent of U.S. gasoline consumption… Less than 1 gallon of oil will produce 10 gallons of energy. In contrast, it currently takes approximately 3 gallons of invested energy to produce 4 gallons of corn ethanol energy. That includes energy to make the fertilizer, fuel to run the tractors and swathers, and fuel to transport the corn to the ethanol plants.”
Second, the proposal would continue our efforts to increase fuel efficiency. My administration has twice increased fuel economy standards for light trucks. Together, these reforms would save billions of gallons of fuel and reduce net greenhouse gas emissions without compromising jobs or safety.
Pick-ups and Vans that weight over 8,500 pounds are exempt, have the effect of forcing the auto industry to make bigger and bigger vehicles.
My proposal at the State of the Union will further improve standards for light trucks and take a similar approach to automobiles. With good legislation, we could save up to 8.5 billion gallons of gasoline per year by 2017, and further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.
2017? That’s 9 years after he’s long gone to his palace in Paraguay. El Presidente!
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA must take action under the Clean Air Act regarding greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. So today, I’m directing the EPA and the Department of Transportation, Energy, and Agriculture to take the first steps toward regulations that would cut gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, using my 20-in-10 plan as a starting point.
20% in ten years, huh? Gee, how much effect ya’ think that’ll have? The SCOTUS literally had to tell the EPA to do it’s fuckin’ job because under Bush they apparently just sat on their hands for the past six years. Oh yeah, Bush’ll “direct” them alright!
Developing these regulations will require coordination across many different areas of expertise. Today, I signed an executive order directing all our agencies represented here today to work together on this proposal. I’ve also asked them to listen to public input, to carefully consider safety, science, and available technologies, and evaluate the benefits and costs before they put forth the new regulation.
How much ya’ wanna bet that the only “public” that will be heard are from Big Oil, Big Agro, and the Big Three?
This is a complicated legal and technical matter, and it’s going to take time to fully resolve. Yet it is important to move forward, so I have directed members of my administration to complete the process by the end of 2008.
The end of 2008. I guess that says it all. So much for 20-in-10!
The steps I announced today are not a substitute for effective legislation. So my — members of my Cabinet, as they begin the process toward new regulations, will work with the White House, to work with Congress, to pass the 20-in-10 bill.
And Lord knows these guys work well with congress!
When it comes to energy and the environment, the American people expect common sense, and they expect action. The policies I’ve laid out have got a lot of common sense to them. It makes sense to do what I proposed, and we’re taking action, by taking the first steps toward rules that will make our economy stronger, our environment cleaner, and our nation more secure for generations to come.
All he’s done, like everything else he’s done, is too fuck it up and leave it to the next administration. His very plan calls for action AFTER the 2008 elections. What a joke.
Thank you for your attention.
Yawn.
JMJ
