Kicking That Addiction

Kicking That Addiction

April 4, 2006

President Bush said during his State of the Union address that “America is addicted to oil.” He was correct: America imports 65 percent (PDF) of the oil we consume and spends $400,000 a minute (PDF) on foreign oil. How committed he is to breaking that addiction remains to be seen. Last week the administration rolled out new fuel economy standards for light trucks and SUVs, but as Sen. Barack Obama said, “This is not a serious effort.” The administration has many options at its disposal to prove that it is serious about breaking America’s addiction to oil.

• The new fuel economy standards are not a strong start towards independence. Automakers produce cars and trucks that are significantly less fuel-efficient, on average, than they were in the late 1980s. The Bush administration last week raised the standard for light trucks and minivans to 24.1 miles per gallon from 21.6. While an improvement, these changes will “save less than two weeks of gasoline each year over the next two decades.” 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.”
  
  
• There is a lot more that can be done on renewable sources of energy. Henry Ford predicted that “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.” Decades later, the government is not doing nearly enough to promote biofuels. President 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.
  
  
• A shift towards biofuels would benefit the global economy. Switching to biofuels would not just be beneficial to the United States. Countries across the globe, especially the poorest nations, would benefit from a reduction in dependence on expensive oil. With two-thirds of the people living in the developing world making their living through agriculture (PDF), a switch to biofuels could spur economies and lift people out of poverty. Brazil is a good example of how countries can use agriculture to make energy a “source of opportunity (PDF) rather than a source of oppression.” (Yesterday, the Center for American Progress held a discussion about how to hasten the arrival of 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.)