A Plan with No Teeth

A Plan with No Teeth

February 2, 2006

In Tuesday’s State of the Union Address the President declared that the United States is “addicted to oil.” The President’s better-late-than-never acknowledgement that we are in fact hamstrung by our oil dependence was welcome. Explaining to the American people that our oil consumption is a national security problem is also essential. For an oil man from Texas to move towards alternative fuels such as ethanol seemed a shocking proposition. But like many of the President’s proposals—such as the victory strategy for Iraq and No Child Left Behind—the President’s insistence that the U.S. wean itself off of oil is empty rhetoric.

• The President’s reduction plan will do little to reduce our current consumption. In his State of the Union the President announced a plan to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. The plan was touted as a “great goal,” but upon further review this is simply not the case. Currently, the U.S. imports 17 percent of its total oil imports from the Middle East, which accounts for about 11 percent of total oil use. If successful, the President’s grand plan will reduce our oil consumption by 8.25 percent over 19 years. At that rate the U.S. will still be addicted to oil.
  
  
• Proving there is no bark to his bite, the President’s budget will underfund many of the energy initiatives he declared in his State of the Union. While it is one thing to argue for an “Advanced Energy Initiative” as the President did in his State of the Union Address, it is another thing to fully fund the proposal. While the energy bill signed into law last summer by the President includes over $1 billion research and development for biofuels alone, it appears unlikely that the proposed budget will fully fund these targets. The fact is that the President has been cutting alternative energy programs with such regularity that any increase would just get us back to the levels he inherited in 2001.
  
  
• Solving our energy crisis demands real leadership and reform, not empty rhetoric. There are real solutions to this problem. By embracing energy efficiency and conservation, Californians reduced their elctricity use by 10 percent during the 2001 blackouts, proving to the rest of America that changing their habits can have an immediate impact. There are other solutions such as conservation, improving fuel standards and working to combat climate change. The Center for American Progress has a realistic and affordable solution that works for all Americans and has both the bark and the bite.