Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Man on the moon, men in the street
There were shades, undeniably, of JFK's famous "man on the moon by the end of the decade" speech in Bush's call for ending substantial US oil dependency by 2025, and OPEC's worried reaction underlines the speech's potential magnitude.
Bush went on to announce the multi-million dollar Advanced Energy Initiative, a 22 percent increase in federal clean energy research that will lead to greater investments in solar, wind and nuclear technologies, as well as zero-emission coal-fired plants.
He also called for more research into hybrid and electric cars and hopes to have alternative sources of fuel, such as ethanol made from corn, wood chips or grass, "practical and competitive within six years."
The goal is to replace 75 percent of U.S. oil imports from the volatile Middle East in the next 20 years. Persian Gulf oil accounts for less than 20 percent of U.S. foreign imports. Bush should make the goal more ambitious.
Oil consumption in this country is staggering — 20.7 million barrels a day in 2004, or a quarter of the world's usage, according to the Energy Department. Two-thirds of that oil goes to transportation, including filling the large SUVs zooming along our highways. No comprehensive and meaningful energy reform can succeed without a concomitant dedication by the American people, who must be willing to make lifestyle changes.
Bush, a former oilman, is correct in calling for industry changes, but a clarion call by itself isn't enough.
(Excerpt is from San Antonio Express-News)
The MOTM speech was a step on the road to dealing with the Sputnik gauntlet thrown down by the Soviets in the '50s, and we should keep in mind that the Soviet Union were outright space race leaders in the early years of that contest, with (err...) moonlight second.
The MOTStreet of today realises that OPEC money can find its way to terror coffers, and that the likes of Chavez and Ahmadinejad would bend and break the West's oil Achilles heel if afforded the opportunity.
That MOTS has also seen the runaway success of Japan in developing new environmentally sensitive technologies in recent years, the failure of the Kyoto bureaucratic US- and free market-bashing regime, and the importance of getting businesses excited about and willingly involved in alternative energies and related techniques.
Getting oil companies and other big producers involved in environmental initiatives was in fact one of the hallmarks of Bush's incredible success as Governor of Texas.
