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Jimbo

Bush: U.S. Needs Smarter Ways to Meet Energy Needs

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=1&u=/nm/20050416/pl_nm/bush_energy_dc

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under pressure over rising gasoline prices, President Bush said on Saturday that energy legislation to be debated on Capitol Hill must encourage conservation and increased production of energy at home.

Bush introduced energy legislation four years ago that languished in Congress through his first term. With gasoline prices hovering at record levels, he and members of Congress are feeling the heat from anxious Americans.

"American families and small businesses across the country are feeling the pinch from rising gas prices," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "If you're trying to meet a family budget or a payroll, even a small change at the pump can have a big impact."

Next week, Congress is to debate energy legislation and Bush will give a speech on Wednesday about America's energy woes and ways to improve supply. He will speak to the U.S.-Hispanic Chambers of Commerce Legislative Conference in Washington.

In his radio address, he said he wanted energy legislation to encourage the use of technology to improve conservation.

"We must find smarter ways to meet our energy needs, and we must encourage Americans to make better choices about energy consumption," he said.

The energy legislation, he said, must also encourage more production of energy at home, diversify the energy supply by developing alternative sources such as ethanol or bio-diesel and find better, more reliable ways to deliver energy to consumers by upgrading transmission lines and pipelines.

Bush, who worked in the oil business early in his career, said U.S. energy consumption had increased by about 4 percent, while domestic production had dropped by 1 percent in the past three years.

"That means more of our energy is coming from abroad. To meet our energy needs and strengthen our national security, we must make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy," he said.

Bush is expected to discuss high prices when he meets this month with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at his Crawford, Texas, ranch on April 25.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a speech on Friday the country was pursuing ways to make electricity and transportation fuel without fossil fuels in order to reduce emissions and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

As examples, Bodman cited renewable motor fuels like ethanol, bio-diesel and clean diesel.

"Already there are eight models of clean diesel vehicles and more than 20 models of ethanol-compatible vehicles available to U.S. consumers," Bodman said. "We also are working to develop hydrogen-powered cars, and to make greater use of renewable electricity sources such as wind and solar power."

The Republican-controlled Congress appears poised to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Giving oil companies access to the refuge's 1.5-million-acre (600,000-hectare) coastal plain and billions of barrels of crude oil is a key part of the Bush administration's national energy plan to help reduce U.S. oil imports.

Despite objections from Democratic lawmakers, the House of Representatives Resources Committee voted on Wednesday to allow oil companies to drill there.

With gasoline demand the biggest component of oil consumption at about 40 percent, many environmentalists say the only way to reduce petroleum demand significantly is to boost vehicle fuel efficiency.

But lawmakers on Wednesday blocked an effort to improve U.S. vehicle fuel efficiency.



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Jim
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But lawmakers on Wednesday blocked an effort to improve U.S. vehicle fuel efficiency.



Well, what do you know?



If I'm not mistaken, Jimmy Carter required auto makers to improve gas mileage a little better each year and Bush put a stop to this.
Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

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If you want better milage that is a consumer choice; why does the gov need to be involved, just buy the damn hybrid.



It wasn't a hybrid. It was better gas mileage for ALL cars. Our President, (bet you're glad he's not yours), represents the oil interests that love consumption. He is the government.
Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

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But lawmakers on Wednesday blocked an effort to improve U.S. vehicle fuel efficiency.



Well, what do you know?



If I'm not mistaken, Jimmy Carter required auto makers to improve gas mileage a little better each year and Bush put a stop to this.



Cite, please?
Mike
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If you want better milage that is a consumer choice; why does the gov need to be involved, just buy the damn hybrid.



My wife and I have been looking into buying a hybrid for some time but our research has shown us that hybrids are not yet meeting their claims for mileage. They still have many bugs to be worked out before they can actually do what they say they will. But believe me when I say that as soon as that happens I'll be getting one

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But lawmakers on Wednesday blocked an effort to improve U.S. vehicle fuel efficiency.



Well, what do you know?



If I'm not mistaken, Jimmy Carter required auto makers to improve gas mileage a little better each year and Bush put a stop to this.



Cite, please?



He was mistaken. The CAFE standards were implemented during Gerald Ford's presidency (1975).
The standards rose under Carter, were frozen under Ronald Reagan, and serious enforcement was effectively killed off by the Gingrich controlled house in 1996.

The 1985 average fuel economy standard of 27.5 mpg for cars has not been raised since and the light truck standard increased only about 1 mpg in the same period. The fuel economy of the combined light duty fleet has now dropped to 23 mpg from its 1986–87 high of 25.9 mpg. Because SUVs are held to the less stringent light truck standard, their growing popularity has led to the decline in average fuel economy for the entire passenger fleet.
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Better Gas Mileage, Greater Security


Kennedy shares how a small investment in conservation, implementing CAFE standards, would quickly reduce American demand for oil and our dependency on foreign oil.

By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

Note: Shel Horowitz's book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, contains a great deal of other information about the interplay of marketing and social change, and ways to move a business toward both environmental and economic sustainablity.

It has become clear to most Americans that maintaining our national security will require reducing our dependence on foreign oil. But Republicans are using the current crisis to push through a reckless energy agenda, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, that will not improve America's security. Even the conservative Cato Institute has called President Bush's claim that Arctic oil would reduce gas prices or American dependency on foreign oil "not just nonsense, but nonsense on stilts."

There is a clear and pragmatic way to reduce our dependency fast. Since 40 percent of the oil used by America fuels light trucks and cars, an increase in corporate average fuel economy standards - called CAFE - could have a dramatic impact.

In the late 1970's, President Jimmy Carter implemented CAFE standards to combat an oil shortage driven by policies of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The standards raised fuel efficiency in American cars by 7.6 miles a gallon over six years, causing oil imports from the Persian Gulf to fall by 87 percent. Our economy grew by 27 percent during that period. Detroit, predictably, figured out how to build more fuel-efficient cars largely without reductions in size, comfort or power.

The CAFE standards worked so well that they produced an oil glut by 1986. That's when the Reagan administration intervened to rescue America's domestic oil industry from gasoline price collapse. Ronald Reagan's rollback of CAFE standards caused America, in that year, to double oil imports from the Persian Gulf nations and to burn more oil than is in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

According to a recent report by Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, if the United States had continued to conserve oil at the rate it did in the period from 1976 to 1985, it would no longer have needed Persian Gulf oil after 1985. Had we continued this wise course, we might not have had to fight the Persian Gulf war, and we would have insulated ourselves from price shocks in the international oil market. Fuel efficiency is a sound national energy policy, economic policy and foreign policy all wrapped into one. Every increase of one mile per gallon in auto fuel efficiency yields more oil than is in two Arctic National Wildlife Refuges. An improvement right now of 2.7 miles per gallon would eliminate our need for all Persian Gulf oil!

Yet the Republican Congress in 1995 made it illegal for the Environmental Protection Agency even to study higher CAFE standards. The result is that America now has the worst energy efficiency in 20 years.

If Congress is serious about ensuring our national security it should immediately pass legislation to raise fuel economy standards to 40 miles a gallon by 2012 and 55 by 2020. This would give automakers ample time to adjust their production. In the meantime, Congress should close the sport utility vehicle loophole by holding S.U.V.'s and minivans to the fuel economy standards for cars; automakers have the technology now to achieve this. Along with the other benefits, higher fuel economy standards could bring increased demand for efficient cars, leading to an increase in motor- vehicle-related jobs. We can also substantially cut gasoline consumption by requiring tire manufacturers to sell replacement tires that are as friction-free as tires on new cars.

We missed a huge opportunity in the 1980's and 1990's to increase our fuel efficiency. If overall energy conservation options available in 1989 were implemented today, each year we would save 54 times the oil that would have been used from the Arctic that year, at a fraction of the price of drilling there.

Mr. Bush's Energy Security Act will actually make us more dependent on foreign oil, and it will place our hopes for national energy security in an insecure pipeline that could even become a terrorist target. There is no reason to wait 10 years for Arctic oil to come on line when a small investment in conservation would quickly reduce American demand for oil.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Note: Shel Horowitz's book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, contains a great deal of other information about the interplay of marketing and social change, and ways to move a business toward both environmental and economic sustainablity.


Yes, I was a little off on presidents. Sorry.
Do your part for global warming: ban beans and hold all popcorn farts.

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>My wife and I have been looking into buying a hybrid for some
>time but our research has shown us that hybrids are not yet meeting
> their claims for mileage.

I have two hybrids - a Honda Civic and Toyta Prius. Listed MPG is:

Civic 48 city/47 highway
Prius 60 city/51 highway

Both cars take about 10,000 miles to 'break in' - to loosen up enough to get their full mileage. With 20,000 miles on the Civic I get between 42 and 66 mpg highway depending how I drive. 85-90mph all the way to Perris I get 42mpg, doing 55-60 I have gotten as high as 66mpg. Average over the life of the car so far is around 46mpg.

The Prius is almost new. I'm getting about 45 mpg average so far.

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>just buy the damn hybrid.

The reason there are hybrids at all is due to the now-watered-down California ZEV mandate. So there would be no consumer choice if the government had not in effect mandated hybrids. They actually mandated AT-PZEV cars, and it's easier to make an AT-PZEV car with hybrid technology than with any conventional technology.

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does he mean "Smarter than de-stablizing the Middle East with a war?"

Just like Bush to try and deflect the blame - jesus christ, who is the president that handed out massive tax breaks for people who buy gas guzzlers right after 9-11? Now he wants to be our friend with 'conservation'?

this guy is a trip.....

TK

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sure, I 'll just let it go - tens of thousands dead, higher taxes, soon-to-be ruined economy, global climate destruction, sonar killing whales, less education, less health care, higher travel and insurance costs, deficit out of control....

guess I'll just 'accept it' as the way it is.

TK

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Just to be accurate, the “Energy Policy Conservation Act” of 1975 was enacted when Ford was Prez. It set voluntary standards. Under Carter the standards became mandatory in 1978. The greatest damage to the standards was done by Gingrich and his Republican cohorts.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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>Yeah, they should have just passed a law that all vehicles in the US
>must get 100 mpg by next year. Problem solved.

That would be a pretty dumb law (but makes a fine strawman.) A much better way to reach such a goal is through the currently existing CAFE standards. Close the SUV loophole and then enact a 2% increase a year in CAFE requirements. It would just about level out our oil demand, and car manufacturers would have no problems meeting it.

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My wife and I have been looking into buying a hybrid for some time but our research has shown us that hybrids are not yet meeting their claims for mileage.



We just bought the Prius (Toyota). It's getting 53 MPG. The bulk of the driving is done on the highway*.

*We live in Washington, DC...so this is 270 / 495 rush hour driving.
Jump, Land, Pack, Repeat...

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