Weird, but yesterday, I thought the same thing. Bush blames everyone else for his woes, but he
never accepts responsibility for his actions, especially since most of them have been disasters.
He refuses to consider energy conservation even though many scientists believe it will help.
A Blinkered Energy Strategy
Excerpt from an Editorial in The New York Times
May 6, 2001
. "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue," he said, "but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy."
Dick Cheney, Vice President of The United States.
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"But conservation — saving energy by using it more efficiently — can
also make a huge difference, and for Mr. Cheney to imply otherwise simply
reinforces the suspicion that his strategy is little more than a clever effort to sell the country on the
need for more drilling.
Take first the fuel supply. Mr. Cheney is determined to drill for oil on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which could yield as much as 600,000 barrels of economically recoverable oil per day by 2010.
By contrast, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy estimates that gradually raising the fuel efficiency of light trucks and cars to 35 miles per gallon would save 1.5 million barrels a day in 2010 and 4.5 million barrels a day by 2020 — up to seven times what the refuge could produce. Moreover, these would be permanent energy savings that would not require invading an ecological treasure.
Improved energy efficiency would also diminish the need for new power plants. In the same speech, Mr. Cheney asserted that energy demands are rising so fast that the country will need to build 1,300 new generating plants in the next 20 years.
This assertion was based on a report of questionable integrity from the Energy Information Administration, an arm of the Energy Department that has traditionally promoted conventional energy sources like coal and oil and downplayed the potential of efficiency and renewable energy
It is also the same report that Mr. Bush used to justify his decision to withdraw from the Kyoto accords on global warming."
nytimes.com |
