Bush's Energy Agenda Fast 'Facts' 

HEATHER SCROOPE / Fox News 27apr2005 

[With comments by Mindfully.org in italics | More on Bush]

WASHINGTON — Speaking at the National Small Business Conference (search) in Washington, D.C., President Bush on Wednesday laid out an energy agenda that partly focused on the importance of technology in finding alternatives to the United States' "growing dependence on foreign sources."

The president’s plan aims to:

President Bush greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. 25apr2005

• Lower the cost of health care through modernization of the health care system via electronic records to help spread health savings accounts. 
  
  Contrary to lowering costs, this most curious proposal would not only raise cost by requiring new technology, but it would also make identity theft far more easy. But the real deception here is that this is just one more way to snoop on every living soul in the US
  
  

• Create association health plans so small businesses can buy insurance at the same discount that big businesses enjoy.
  
  Offer the same lousy health care plans to everyone. Dumb-down an already comatose system.
  
  

• Restrain federal spending and cut the deficit in half by 2009.
  
  How else is he going to finance the war? We need to cut as much of that federal spending as possible, which means that the poor will suffer further cuts. The word is that he's out to kill the Section 8 Housing Program. It's public knowledge what his "Leave No Child Behind" program has left as many children behind as possible. He's nearly made a total wreck of education. 
  
  

• Encourage oil-producing countries to maximize their production.
  
  Go for broke. Pump now, worry later. Well OK, we admit there'll be no later.
  
  

• Prevent price gouging.
  
  Halliburton and the rest of his cronies don't need competition at price gauging!
  
  

• Change existing law that will facilitate the nuclear plant-licensing process and provide federal risk insurance to protect those building nuclear plants against delays that are beyond their control.
  
  We repeat -- Let's go for broke. Why worry about the inevitable pollution of uranium? We have a great use for uranium; make DU munitions and atomize it in Iraq. It's only radioactive for 4.5 billion years. Why worry!
  
  

• Facilitate the building and expanding of American oil refineries.
  
  (Already covered above)
  
  

• Open areas to environmentally responsible exploration for oil and natural gas, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
  
  (ditto) Hey, wait! Environmentally responsible oil and natural gas? Isn't that what's causing global warming?
  
  

• Expedite the review of the 32 proposed projects to expand or build liquefied natural gas terminals, which in its liquid form enables easier transportation on tankers and storage.
  
  I thought he was into fighting terrorism? But LNG terminals actually invite terrorists! The explosion of a LNG terminal would decimate entire cities such as Boston. Hec, we don't need Boston anyway.
  
  

• Remove pollutants from coal-fired power plants to make cleaner use of coal.
  
  Even the Wall Street Journal knows that "clean coal" is an oxymoron (definition of oxymoron).
  
  

• Create and employ sources of energy such as hydrogen, which has the potential to power anything from a cell phone to a computer to an automobile and emits pure water instead of exhaust fumes.
  
  National Academy of Sciences dismissed the Energy Department's goals as "unrealistically aggressive."  This is just one more technological fix for the problems of the last technological fix. We can save far more energy by merely making what we have far more efficient, which is amazingly easier that introducing more technology. It takes a lot of power to create the hydrogen fuel. That additional power will come from coal, oil and nuclear. Nuclear also requires a lot of energy inputs, a substantial amount of which comes from coal. Of course little junior Bush's scientific hacks  never explain that.
  
  

• Develop advanced nuclear technologies that can produce hydrogen fuels for cars and trucks through the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative.
  
  Oh no, the old double negative equals a positive routine. Cool.
  
  

• Transform ethanol from agricultural and industrial waste into energy.
  
  It still promotes global warming. Do you still think that global warming is a hoax?
  
  

• Explore producing renewable fuel from leftover fats and vegetable oils.
  
  This just goes from dumb to dumberer. The company Changing World Technologies has a lock on this baby.
  
  

• Explore renewable energy technologies such as wind, residential solar heating systems and energy produced from landfill gas and biomass.
  
  What about just using less? That's the all-time cheapest and most efficient way to save energy.
  
  

• Use technology to enable Americans to become better conservers.
  
  Geez, we thought he'd never get here. But what's technology got to do with it? Let's just pull the plug; reduce driving miles; stop watching ignorant TV stations like FOX that don't tell us what we need to know and lie about the rest; take the bus, train, subway, or walk; turn off the computer when not used for more than 20 minutes; ride a bike; stay home!
  
  

• Develop products such as energy-efficient windows that keep hot and cold air in and prevent dollars from flowing out, as well as high-efficiency light bulbs last longer than traditional ones while requiring less electricity.
  
  The first light bulbs that were produced when they were first used lasted so long that they had to make them last shorter periods of time. That way companies like GE can gauge us for so-called longer-lasting light bulbs. History is amazing, especially when it's forgotten or omitted on TV stations like FOX.
  
  

• Encourage production of fuel-efficient vehicles such as hybrids, which use a combination of gasoline and electricity and enable ultra-low emissions and exceptional performance.
  
  Hybrids are great, they encourage people to drive more because they are saving energy.
  
  

• Produce clean diesel technology to allow consumers to travel much farther on each gallon of fuel, without the smoke and pollution of past diesel engines.
  
  Ditto on the word oxymoron. See it above.
  
  

• Provide tax credits to encourage consumers to purchase energy-efficient automobiles.
  
  Let's encourage people to purchase more automobiles instead of creating a mass transit system that works. The expense of owning a car far outweigh paying taxes for an efficient mass transit system. But then the auto moguls would no longer be able to steal our paychecks through car payments, insurance and gas, not to mention many billions of dollars in tax-funded subsidies to create and maintain the highway infrastructure. Yes, those subsidies amount to many billions yearly.
  
  

• Bring the U.S. electrical grid into the 21st century.
  
  Let's make it so households can consume even greater amounts of power rather than teaching them to cut back on energy use.
  
  

• Protect American families and businesses from damaging power outages.
  
  Power outages are not good because they discourage energy use.
  
  

• Build a modern electricity grid.
  
  Isn't that what he just said?
  
  

• Ensure other nations can take advantage of advances in technology to reduce their own demand to ease costs and help protect the environment.
  
  make it so that any new technology must be purchased from us. That's the American way dude!
  

source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154825,00.html 28apr2005