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	GOOD NEWS For the first time ever, scientists have grown human bladders in a lab and implanted portions of them into patients, providing hope that someday the experimental reconstruction procedure will be standard for larger numbers of patients who have bladder damage. TALKING POINTS Kicking That Addiction STATE WATCH NEW JERSEY: The Delaware River and Bay are so polluted that New Jersey is advising residents to limit their consumption to "one meal of weakfish from the bay per month." PRICES: Food prices have gone up in 2006, costing five percent more in the first three months of the year. ABORTION: The National Network of Abortion Funds has launched a fund to "ensure that women have the resources and help they need to obtain abortions -- no matter what the South Dakota legislature does." BLOG WATCH THINK PROGRESS: Opening day: The making of a presidential photo-op. HIT & RUN: A thought experiment for conservatives trying to turn immigration into a debate about flags. MEDIA MATTERS: Rush Limbaugh calls woman allegedly raped by Duke lacrosse players a "ho." DAILY GRILL "I plan to run a very vigorous campaign and I plan to win it." -- former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), 1/9/06 VERSUS "This had become a referendum on me. ... I'm a realist. I've been around awhile. ... I can evaluate political situations." -- former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), 4/4/06, explaining why he is resigning from Congress ARCHIVES Progress Report STUDENTS Politics with an Attitude: Everyone from Barack Obama to Stephen Colbert talks to Campus Progress. Right-wingers seem scared of us. Find out why here.

by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin

CORRUPTION	DeLay to Resign, But His House Still Stands
ENERGY	After Oil
UNDER THE RADAR	Go Beyond The Headlines
THINK FAST	Coffee and Donuts Not Included
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CORRUPTION
DeLay to Resign, But His House Still Stands

Criminally-indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) announced last night that "he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months." According to DeLay, he has been chosen as a "target" because he was "effective" and accomplished "some pretty amazing things." But the truth is that Tom DeLay's extensive corruption and bitter ultra-partisan activism had finally caught up with him -- costing him his Majority Leader title, turning him into a national political pariah, and eventually shifting his conservative Texas district against him. DeLay will reportedly leave Congress by the end of May, and says he plans to "pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government." But despite his absence, the House of Representatives will remain the House of DeLay. The overwhelming majority of House conservatives supported the "DeLay Rule" that was "custom tailored for Majority Leader DeLay to avoid stepping down even after indictment." House conservatives rigged the ethics committee to protect DeLay from being penalized. And they rushed to his side with support even after the full extent of his corruption became evident. As Josh Marshall writes, "He's their guy. Their rule rests on his machine. They can run but they can't hide."

ENERGY
After Oil

America imports sixty-five percent of the oil we consume and spends $400,000 a minute on foreign oil. In response to the growing concern among Americans about rising fuel prices, President Bush recently admitted that "America is addicted to oil." Bush promised to move America "beyond a petroluem-based economy" and to set a goal of reducing our Middle East oil imports by 75 percent by 2025. (Unfortunately, he "didn't mean it literally.") Last week, the administration trumpeted new fuel economy standards for light trucks and SUVs as an "ambitious" attempt to increase fuel efficiency, but as Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) pointed out, "This is not a serious effort." "Saying that America is addicted to oil without following a real plan for energy independence," Obama said, "is like admitting alcoholism and then skipping out on the 12-step program." (Yesterday, the Center for American Progress held a discussion about the "After Oil" era and examined ways in which the United States can create a "green economy" that would free ourselves from the grip of foreign oil.)

NEW FUEL ECONOMY STANDARDS A WEAK START: One reason why we consume so much oil is because automakers "produce cars and trucks that are significantly less fuel-efficient, on average, than they were in the late 1980's." Since Congress mandated corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards thirty years ago, loopholes for SUVs and trucks have "made a mockery" of the guidelines. The Bush administration last week took a baby step to correct the problem by raising the standard for light trucks and minivans to 24.1 miles per gallon (mpg) from 21.6 mpg. Enormous SUVs such as the Hummer H2 will finally come under the federal requirements, but passenger vehicle standards will stay at 27.5 mpg - where they have been since 1985. The Union of Concerned Scientists said the new rules will "save less than two weeks of gasoline each year over the next two decades," and will leave "the average fuel economy of our cars and trucks lower than it was 20 years ago and helping to push U.S. oil dependence to an all-time high." Also, a "little-noticed" provision will make it "much harder for states to set their own levels for how many miles per gallon vehicles should achieve." The new rule voids stricter rules set by states, even though the National Academy of Sciences praised California's strict standards, calling the state "a proving ground for new emissions-control technologies that benefit California and the rest of the nation."

AMERICA CAN DO MORE ON RENEWABLE BIOFUELS: "The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumach out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust -- almost anything," an American automaker predicted. "There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented." The businessman wasn't CEO Bill Ford, who promised last year his company would produce 250,000 hybrids annually by 2010; it was his great-grandfather Henry Ford. But many decades since petroleum became the dominant source of our energy, the government is not doing enough to promote biofuels. Bush's latest budget proposal contained more funding for oil company research and development than it did for investments in biofuels technology, and contained 22 percent less money for renewable energy than was laid out in last year's energy bill. In previous years, Bush cut funding for biofuels and rejected setting achievable goals for production, such as generating "at least 10 percent of their electricity through renewable fuels by 2020." Meanwhile, others are stepping into the leadership void. State politicians are working to pick up the federal government's slack. Obama yesterday laid out his plan to "ramp up the renewable fuel standard and create an alternative diesel standard so that by 2025, 65 billion gallons of alternative fuels a year will be blended into the petroleum supply." Former Sen. Tom Daschle recently called for auto companies to better educate customers about the 4.5 million flexible fuel vehicles already on the roads, and for oil companies to increase the number of stations offering "E85," a fuel with 85 percent ethanol. (Read American Progress's biofuel plan.)

PRIVATE SECTOR LEADING THE WAY: The government cannot break our oil addiction alone; ultimately, private companies will be the ones turning renewable fuel innovations into sustainable industries. Business leaders are beginning to see the potential of the ethanol industry, which currently provides 200,000 jobs and cuts our dependence on foreign oil by 3.1 billion gallons every year. David Hallberg, founder of E3 Biofuels, is one entrepreneur who is working to create a biofuel future. His company plans to finish construction on Nebraska's first biorefinery by spring 2006. The plant will use an "integrated system" of cattle and corn waste that "will maximize energy yield and environmental quality." Venture capitalists are also seeing an opportunity in renewable fuels. Investors such as Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Kholsa have put "nearly $181 million into alternative-energy companies last year -- nearly double the $103 million invested in that sector in 2004." (Up from $2.95 million in 1995.) "If you look out five years," one investor recently said, "this is a sector that can be every bit as big as the Internet."

FUEL FOR GLOBAL GROWTH: The United States is not the only country that would benefit from a shift towards biofuels. The high price of oil "has had a disproportionate impact on the world’s poorest countries," and three-quarters of the countries who qualify for international debt relief are net oil importers. Currently, two-thirds of the people living in the developing world make their living through agriculture. Brazil provides an example of how other countries around the world can use agriculture to make energy a "source of opportunity rather than a source of oppression." Since the 1970s, the Brazilian government has provided the necessary support to make ethanol derived from sugarcane a common source of fuel. By the end of last year, 70 percent of the new cars sold in Brazil were Flex Fuel Vehicles, putting them on the path to energy self-sufficiency. Not bad for a country that used to import 80 percent of its crude oil. American farmers would also benefit from a biofuels boom. "By investing in the potential of our own domestic agricultural sector to produce alternative energy," the American Progress Senior Fellow Gayle Smith wrote, "the United States can create new markets, increase farm income, and offer rural America something better than just a safety net: a competitive edge."