Bush Energy Plan No Solution
Contact:
Sara Zdeb, 202 222-0728
Statement of Friends of the Earth
Days after a new poll gave President Bush low marks for his handling of energy problems, he’s again pushing the same tired proposals that will do nothing to lower prices at the pump or put us on a path toward energy independence.
Contact Richard Bell for media inquiries at 202-222-0742.
Holding hands with Prince Abdullah didn’t work, so now the president has resorted to another fruitless proposition: pushing an energy plan that his own administration concludes will do nothing to lower the price of gas.
The Bush administration’s own Energy Department concluded that under the energy plan he’s pushing Congress to pass, oil imports would increase by an astounding 85 percent over 20 years. Absent from the energy bill and the president’s speech today is the most basic solution to our energy problems: a requirement that cars go farther on a gallon of gasoline. His plan also ignores other common-sense solutions, like a requirement that we produce more energy from renewable sources.
Instead, the president wants to lavish taxpayer dollars on the nuclear power industry even though there’s no safe way to dispose of dangerous radioactive waste. He also wants to speed siting of liquefied natural gas terminals, allowing the federal government to ignore state and local concerns over these potentially dangerous terrorist targets.
If President Bush really wants to help address our energy needs, he’ll stop promoting non-solutions. Instead, he should go back to the drawing board and write an energy plan that actually reduces our dependence on oil.