On Monday, President Bush made the announcement that he intends on asking Congress to pass legislation requiring a 20% reduction in gasoline consumption in the next 10 years. He first proposed the idea in this year’s State of the Union Address. Overall, it’s catchy and it has a ring to it, but it’s way off key.
Through increased CAFE standards and alternative fuels, Bush is hoping he can begin to break our country’s ‘addiction to oil.’ In short, we are too dependent on a resource vulnerable to supply disruption.
There are several problems with Bush’s proposal. The first is that “alternative fuels” can mean coal-to-liquid fuel, whose lifecycle releases double the greenhouse gas emissions of the gasoline we use now. The second is that “alternative fuels” can also mean corn ethanol, which have little or no greenhouse gas benefit and whose production is already driving up the price of corn.
Third, Bush has the authority today to increase fuel economy standards for cars. For six years he has refused to use that authority, and now that his presidency is a lameduck, he wants Congress to give him slightly different authority. He is all hat and no cattle.
Meanwhile, this week the House Rules Committee considers a provision mandating a Department of Defense study on how climate affects the department’s “facilities, capabilities and missions.” (E&E, subs. req’d) And as we’ve seen multiple times, other govermental agencies that we could consider national security threat indicators are factoring climate change into their analyses.
A better option would be for Bush to endorse a low-carbon fuel standard, similar to the bills Sen. Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Boxer (D-Cali.) and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wa.) have introduced. Or to look into other strategies like the Energy Future Coalition’s 25 x 25 initiative to promote domestic, renewable energy.
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