President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday addressed a sensitive topic for Detroit's automakers: America's energy dependence.He pledged to increase government research that would lead to better batteries for gasoline-electric hybrid and electric cars and fund research that would make ethanol fuel more a practical alternative.
President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday addressed a sensitive topic for Detroit's automakers: America's energy dependence.He pledged to increase government research that would lead to better batteries for gasoline-electric hybrid and electric cars and fund research that would make ethanol fuel more a practical alternative.
He also continued to support that H(2) fraud. For two out of three, 66%, we'll give him a D.
Of course that assumes we just forget about CAFE, other energy conservation and tax cuts for the highly profitable oil companies and Hummers.
So does anyone have a timeline of the last 50 years or so for what the US Government has ever done to encourage or enforce energy conservation? Was it Nixon that created the EPA? That was a nice step. I hear CAFE requirements were raised for the light truck segment in the Clinton administration and raised further during Bush's time thanks to requiring much higher EPA numbers from the smaller end of the 6 new categories of light truck. Anything else? Seriously, can we name anything else significant in the last 50 years that has been done to conserve energy?
Why, yes there is plenty of energy conservation changes over the past 30 years. Just take a look at building codes. That is pretty straight forward. 30 years ago, most places didn't require more than R-19 in attics, R-19 in the walls and nothing in floors. Todays homes require at least R-30 in attics, plus insulation in walls (these are all 2x6 now instead of 2x4 for more insulation) and floors must be insulated. Homes must be covered in a vapor barrier and interior walls are covered with visquene after batt insulation has been put in. Home heating and air conditioning is far and away much more efficient now. 30 years ago your average gas furnace was lucky to be 60% efficient, 80% was a streach. Today 80% efficient is the bottom end and some furnaces are able to achieve 97% efficiency.
The list goes on and on. The truth of the matter is our homes and offices are larger consumers of energy than our vehicles. And our homes have significantly improved over the past 30 years.
So, yes, there has been lots of energy consumption reducton through better building methods and minor improvements to older housing.
It has been said: Hybrid drivers come in 3 flavors, greenie, techie and cheapie. Pick any 2.
2005 Prius, Melinium Silver over gray, package 5 (AI)
By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News
December 20, 2005
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden plans to lay off as many as 100 scientists and researchers, or 11 percent of its total staff, beginning early next month as it faces drastic cuts in its budget.
The fiscal 2006 cuts, estimated at more than $20 million, or 10 percent of its $200 million budget in fiscal 2005, are the result of Congress earmarking or diverting a big chunk of federal funds toward other projects. In fiscal 2006, Congress cut the Department of Energy's budget for all renewable energy programs by more than 35 percent. As a result, DOE, which funds NREL as well as other national labs, has cut the total amount it will give the lab in Golden. NREL does research in wind, biomass, solar and hydrogen technologies.
Anyone can turnaround, but given the history of this Administration on energy, I fear it's more lip service that will be forgotten.
The most likely way I see a serious energy policy occurring in the next three years is Iran and/or Venzula (sp) clamping the oil supply...
I think you're definately right about the Administration and things being lip service, of course we have to remember they had the head of Enron help write the energy policy in the early days of the Admin.
But I think that both House's will do some things, in spite of the Administration, to push things along - there's too many interests that are wanting things to move here (both conservative and liberal).
We could certainly accomplish so much more and so much quicker if we had an Administration that lead in this area, but considering the current situation I believe we'll see more from our Representatives. I think another $3/gallon summer would really push things along.
Yes, that would be one plus side of $3/gallon summer gas....people will see that this wasn't a one time thing. Bye bye newly redesigned 2007/2008 GM full size SUVs. Hello Toyota Camry Hybrid & Nissan Altima Hybrid.
GM says the hybrid powertrain in the new Saturn VUE "green line" costs less than $2k more than a conventional car. For the past several years GM has OFTEN times being giving $2k+ off their cars in rebates and special pricing. You would think they'd be happy to sell some "green line" cars at MSRP and make the same and/or more profit.
The current administration doesnt appear to be doing much to ease our future energy concerns. The previous administation didn't do any better, or the 3 administrations before it....before then I don't know but I bet they gave A LOT of lip service too. Hell most of every state of the union is lip service, doesn't matter the topic.
Sadly I don't think our government will do much to ease our concerns over our future energy plan. They'll stand by and wait for the American public to demand it, and wait for private enterprise to give it to them. I know some people will say private enterprise won't make the leap to the next generation of vehicles and that none of the current automakers are interested in making real change. I'm sure there were a lot of typewriter companies who werent interested in making computers, Apple and Microsoft weren't making typewriters and now look where they are, and look where the typewritter makers are. The same thing could happen.
While were making advances and trying to use less fossil fuels I still think it's vitally import to help reduce our oil imports by drilling in part of ANWR. You know, that part of ANWR that was specifically reserved when Congress created it for future oil exploration (anti-anwr drilling people often leave that little tid bit out).
Bush says new fuels will bring a new era
