US SOTU  

Posted by Big Gav

Dave Roberts at GristMill has been blogging at a great rate about our glorious emperor's speech yesterday and his little segment on the perils of dependence on foreign oil and the need to look at alternatives (while studiously ignoring the perils of global warming and side effects like hurricane Katrina). I thought this little segment borrowed from ThinkProgress shows that people may be reading more into this than might be justified - there has been boilerplate along these lines in his speeches for quite some time - though so far he has just concentrated on invading some oil producers and trying to intimidate others. Great strategy.

Apparently he talked about cutting oil imports from the middle east by 75% by 2025, but after some later clarifications it appears these were "just numbers".

According to speech excerpts released by the White House, tonight President Bush will take the bold stand that America needs to be less dependent on foreign oil:
America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology.

Sound familiar?
2002: "This Congress must act to encourage conservation, promote technology, build infrastructure, and it must act to increase energy production at home so America is less dependent on foreign oil."

2003: "Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our country, while dramatically improving the environment. … [We should be] much less dependent on foreign sources of energy."

2004: "I urge you to pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation, and make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy."

2005: "I urge Congress to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy."

Meanwhile, our dependence on foreign oil has increased from 58 percent in 2000 to 66 percent today. If America is addicted to oil, George W. Bush is our dealer.

Or as the Village Voice put it, "a failed oilman talks about failed oil".
The Permian Basin POTUS, beating Punxsutawney Phil to the punch by a little more than 24 hours, stuck his head out in public last night, saw the threatening shadow of GOP defeat this fall, and proclaimed something that we already know: We're "addicted to oil."

The dreaded "peak oil" theory, ignored by most of the GOP until now, finally rated a peek by the Pennsylvania Avenue groundhog.

But this one's a bad movie: When we woke up this morning, George W. Bush was still president. Talk about an endless loop: Bush, the failed "oilman" who is the son of a rich guy who himself dabbled in oil, wouldn't be the U.S. president if we weren't addicted to oil, and his family's pals in the oil bidness hadn't propped him up with their outrageous profits. And all he was doing in his State of the Union address was mouthing what one of his mentors, billionaire Richard Rainwater, has been saying recently.

Bush's handlers are just trying to distract us, but the doomsaying is real. First, though, here's the part of Bush's speech I really liked, his rap about how "America has become a more hopeful nation." What a laugh. It was a fearmongering speech, but with the subject changed from Iraq and terrorists to oil. With typical push and pull, Bush's handlers sought to soothe us and scare us.

0 comments

Post a Comment

Statistics

Locations of visitors to this page

blogspot visitor
Stat Counter

Total Pageviews

Ads

Books

Followers

Blog Archive

Labels

australia (619) global warming (423) solar power (397) peak oil (355) renewable energy (302) electric vehicles (250) wind power (194) ocean energy (165) csp (159) solar thermal power (145) geothermal energy (144) energy storage (142) smart grids (140) oil (139) solar pv (138) tidal power (137) coal seam gas (131) nuclear power (129) china (120) lng (117) iraq (113) geothermal power (112) green buildings (110) natural gas (110) agriculture (91) oil price (80) biofuel (78) wave power (73) smart meters (72) coal (70) uk (69) electricity grid (67) energy efficiency (64) google (58) internet (50) surveillance (50) bicycle (49) big brother (49) shale gas (49) food prices (48) tesla (46) thin film solar (42) biomimicry (40) canada (40) scotland (38) ocean power (37) politics (37) shale oil (37) new zealand (35) air transport (34) algae (34) water (34) arctic ice (33) concentrating solar power (33) saudi arabia (33) queensland (32) california (31) credit crunch (31) bioplastic (30) offshore wind power (30) population (30) cogeneration (28) geoengineering (28) batteries (26) drought (26) resource wars (26) woodside (26) censorship (25) cleantech (25) bruce sterling (24) ctl (23) limits to growth (23) carbon tax (22) economics (22) exxon (22) lithium (22) buckminster fuller (21) distributed manufacturing (21) iraq oil law (21) coal to liquids (20) indonesia (20) origin energy (20) brightsource (19) rail transport (19) ultracapacitor (19) santos (18) ausra (17) collapse (17) electric bikes (17) michael klare (17) atlantis (16) cellulosic ethanol (16) iceland (16) lithium ion batteries (16) mapping (16) ucg (16) bees (15) concentrating solar thermal power (15) ethanol (15) geodynamics (15) psychology (15) al gore (14) brazil (14) bucky fuller (14) carbon emissions (14) fertiliser (14) matthew simmons (14) ambient energy (13) biodiesel (13) investment (13) kenya (13) public transport (13) big oil (12) biochar (12) chile (12) cities (12) desertec (12) internet of things (12) otec (12) texas (12) victoria (12) antarctica (11) cradle to cradle (11) energy policy (11) hybrid car (11) terra preta (11) tinfoil (11) toyota (11) amory lovins (10) fabber (10) gazprom (10) goldman sachs (10) gtl (10) severn estuary (10) volt (10) afghanistan (9) alaska (9) biomass (9) carbon trading (9) distributed generation (9) esolar (9) four day week (9) fuel cells (9) jeremy leggett (9) methane hydrates (9) pge (9) sweden (9) arrow energy (8) bolivia (8) eroei (8) fish (8) floating offshore wind power (8) guerilla gardening (8) linc energy (8) methane (8) nanosolar (8) natural gas pipelines (8) pentland firth (8) saul griffith (8) stirling engine (8) us elections (8) western australia (8) airborne wind turbines (7) bloom energy (7) boeing (7) chp (7) climategate (7) copenhagen (7) scenario planning (7) vinod khosla (7) apocaphilia (6) ceramic fuel cells (6) cigs (6) futurism (6) jatropha (6) nigeria (6) ocean acidification (6) relocalisation (6) somalia (6) t boone pickens (6) local currencies (5) space based solar power (5) varanus island (5) garbage (4) global energy grid (4) kevin kelly (4) low temperature geothermal power (4) oled (4) tim flannery (4) v2g (4) club of rome (3) norman borlaug (2) peak oil portfolio (1)