More on BushCo's Push for Alt-Energy

The bloggers over at ThinkProgress are now putting out a daily email--the Progress Report (view archives here)--that covers one or two main topics a day with an abundance of source links. Today's newsletter focuses some more light on President Bush's tour to highlight his newly discovered alternative energy policy (see more in this morning's news roundup), nicely headlined as "A Full Tank of Rhetoric." They cover yesterday's visit to Milwaukee and today's visit to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO (which recently had some budget cuts restored, enough to cover lost jobs but not research), and the seeming hypocrisy of Bush's public relations full-court press on addressing our addiction to oil in light of the less-than-stellar history in supporting these initiatives:

NREL is in need of more than a short-term fix. Its budget fell from nearly $230 million in 2003 to $201 million last year. With the expected $28 million budget cut for 2006, NREL will receive less this year than it received the first year Bush came to office. While Bush announced a set of proposals to increase funding for alternative sources of energy in his 2006 State of Union (dubbed the “Advanced Energy Initiative”), his administration’s neglect of NREL -- which works on “several alternative energies, including geothermal and wind power, hydrogen and fuel cells, biomass and photovoltaics” -- indicates more initiative is needed. Bush has a real opportunity to showcase his commitment to alternative energy by funding the work of NREL. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) argues, “Properly funded, NREL could develop new materials to make better solar units and build safer but more fuel efficient cars. … If the president truly wants the nation to embrace renewable energy, he must become NREL's champion in chief.”

Bush’s 2007 budget “includes cuts for research in other areas, such as improving the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks.” The proposed increase for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Fuels is a mere 0.2 percent. According to Jeremy Symons, a former staffer on Cheney’s energy task force, Bush’s budget “funds less than half of what the recent energy bill promised for renewable energy and energy efficiency - the two most readily available opportunities to break our addiction to oil.” The administration has repeatedly failed to address “a leading cause of U.S. dependence on imported oil: the fuel efficiency of cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles.” In 2005, the administration fought off a congressional push for requiring better fuel mileage in 2005 energy bill. During debate over that bill, the administration held back the release of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on fuel efficiency showing cars and trucks are significantly less fuel efficient than they were in the late 1980s. “Federal requirements for passenger car fuel efficiency are the same as in 1985, about 27.5 miles per gallon. The rules for SUVs, vans and pickups are stuck at 21 mpg, where they were five years ago.”