Arbusto To The Rescue
As a follow-up to my previous gas prices post, let’s do some arithmetic with our visual aids. This chart :
Plus this chart :
Equals pandering :
Calling the oil issue a matter of national security, President Bush outlined a plan Tuesday to cut gasoline costs and temporarily stopped deposits to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
. . .
The plan calls for making sure consumers and taxpayers are treated fairly, promoting greater fuel efficiency, boosting the U.S. gasoline supply and investing aggressively in gasoline alternatives.Bush also has ordered a federal investigation into possible cheating, price gouging or illegal manipulation in the gasoline markets.
Bush said consumers must first be treated fairly at the gas pump.
“Americans understand by and large that the price of crude oil is going up and that [gas] prices are going up, but what they don’t want and will not accept is manipulation of the market,” Bush said. “And neither will I.”
The President has so little credibility on this issue that this is just laughable. Expecting oil-millionaire Bush to protect consumers is about as believable of O.J. Simpson’s promise to catch the “real killers”. The President is so untrustworthy on this issue that this whole gambit just makes him look foolish.
What makes Bush look even more foolish is the fact that his “bold” plan was announced at the convention for an ethanol lobbying group :
Next time, maybe you should announce your plans on more neutral ground, Mr. President. Then again, a big chunk of the speech is a love-letter to the ethanol industry anyways, including this hilarious line :
The way I like to put it would be — it’s a good thing when a president can sit there and say, “Gosh, we’ve got a lot of corn. And that means we’re less dependent on foreign sources of oil.”
Gosh, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that agribusinesses giant Archer-Daniels Midland (whose Senior Vice President for Ethanol Sales & Marketing sits on the RFA’s board of directors) has given over $3 million dollars in political “donations” since 2000. I support biological alternatives to fossil fuels, but the idea that the President woke up one day and suddenly cared about energy independence is ludicrous. You’re thirty years late to this party, George, so it pretty clear that the only reason you’re showing up now is because somebody paid you to attend.
11 comments »
Copy link for RSS feed for comments on this post
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
According to the MSNBC report, the President’s plan - I mean “plan” - amounts to a big fuck you to the Ethanol people because it temporarily removes refining rules that required certain percentages of ethanol in certain regions’ gasoline. Which just about makes this the weirdest thing I’ve seen today… I assume I am misunderstanding things here, does anybody have any leads on this?
Comment by Joe — April 25, 2006 @ 2:27 pm
Bush Takes Aim At Gas Prices
President Bush has decided to temporarily halt deposits to the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve to m
Trackback by Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator — April 25, 2006 @ 3:04 pm
The price of gas is not the issue that will save the Democrats. The Strategic Reserve can EASILY drop the price of oil for election time. George has stopped the inflow to the Reserve today, the price will go down, temperarily, and ease some of the flak that’s flying now. He’s just as willing and able to use that for the election. He SURE DOESN’T talk about OSAMA, or wants to.
Comment by Mike Meyer — April 25, 2006 @ 7:25 pm
The Bush family is not affected by approval ratings. The only numbers that affect the Bush family are the price per share of their oil stocks. The ultimate slap in the face to the American collective intelligence is having an oil prince (Bush) tell us how hydrogen is what we need. He knows it is not feasible, hopes to satisfy a large portion of an apathetic populus, and have a good laugh at how futile our atempts to hold Republicans responsible for this mess really are. Wag the dog, indeed!
Comment by patrick — April 25, 2006 @ 11:28 pm
The whole idea of ethanol is entirely flawed. In order to produce corn, we need a massive amount of fossil energy to produce nitrogen, herbicides, and tractor fuel. The corn then has to be converted to ethanol, again at great energetic cost. The bottom line is that it takes energy to produce energy, and we only get a little more out than we put in…and it isn’t even cost effective without huge subsidies all along the line!
Comment by Charlie — April 26, 2006 @ 7:00 am
Hydrogen really is the answer. Easily produced, Will burn in the engines we have on the road right now, only by-produce is PURE WATER.
Comment by Mike Meyer — April 26, 2006 @ 9:56 am
Ethanol is also a bad idea because even if the EROEI was favorable (which it probably isn’t) you essentially run into the problem of having to decide what to use growing land for: food or oil. In growing world of 6+ billion which already faces food shortages (albiet mostly due to distribution) and energy shortages (with demand growing), it doesn’t seem to be much of a win-win proposition at all.
Comment by moonbiter — April 26, 2006 @ 10:14 am
It only takes 1.29 volts of D.C. current electricity to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. A flashlight battery will do the stunt and even have 2.1 volts to spare.
Comment by Mike Meyer — April 26, 2006 @ 3:30 pm
aren’t they also de-regulating the emmissions standards as part of his new plan? great… gas is a little more expensive, so the answer is to speed up global warming and fuck up the enviroment even more.
i agree.. ethanol is not the best idea because it will only give another reason for corporations to rape the earth for profit. hydrogen and electric cars seem better.
Comment by tomN! — April 26, 2006 @ 3:49 pm
Soooo… You really think Big Oil is in favor of hydrogen, because that is who is making money now, not Big Hydrogen. I guess in the pursuit of happiness and joy we could turn over the entire economy of the entire world just to save the planet. Now I know how these idiots keep getting elected.
Comment by patrick — April 26, 2006 @ 10:59 pm
Big Hydrogen will have to come from out here not from in there, and it will be a fight. No need to look to the government on this one. The ONLY reason George gives it lipservice is because they know it’s comming. If you seriously want to help MOTHER EARTH then you have to do it without help from Uncle Sam.
Comment by Mike Meyer — April 27, 2006 @ 9:25 am