Today in a speech to the Associated Press, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) tore apart President Bush’s “plan” to reduce dependence on oil. Here’s an excerpt:
Now, after the President’s last State of the Union, when he told us that America was addicted to oil, there was a brief moment of hope that he’d finally do something on energy.
I was among the hopeful. But then I saw the plan.
His funding for renewable fuels is at the same level it was the day he took office. He refuses to call for even a modest increase in fuel-efficiency standards for cars. And his latest budget funds less then half of the energy bill he himself signed into law — leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in under-funded energy proposals.
This is not a serious effort. Saying that America is addicted to oil without following a real plan for energy independence is like admitting alcoholism and then skipping out on the 12-step program. It’s not enough to identify the challenge — we have to meet it.
(We’ve obtained the full text of the speech and posted it HERE.)
To learn what a real effort to break America’s oil addiction would look like, check out this report.