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unplug
unplug magazine asks you to unplug from your current modes of thought and look at life in a new way, whether this means unplugging from our toxic consumer culture, mainstream society, the tv, or a limiting mindset. author megan prusynski explores life's alternatives and discusses activism, progressive thinking, and moving towards a "green" & sustainable life.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
I'll believe it when I see it....
It was hard to get through, but I listened to the State of the Union Address the other day. Ok, so I kinda got bored and started making dinner halfway through, but I tried to listen. Luckily the full text of the speech is available online, in case anyone missed it. It sounded a lot like last year's in certain respects, except that Bush got very excited (or pretended to be anyway) about saying 'Madam Speaker' over and over again. (Well, having Nancy Pelosi as our Speaker of the House is pretty damn exciting I guess!)
Anyway, I was impressed that Bush gave some face time to domestic and social issues before diving into discussions of the war on terror (at which point he continued to confuse the nation by blurring the lines between 9/11 and Iraq, as usual). I'm not sure how much of what he said will come true, or how the speech affected his approval rating *snicker*... but he actually wants to reduce our dependence on foreign oil (didn't he say this last year, too?) and reduce our use of gasoline by improving efficiency standards and promoting alternative energy. Unfortunately, Bush seems to think that "clean energy" means coal, which is about the opposite of clean. Not only does coal require strip mining which dramatically alters the natural landscape, but burning coal dumps all kinds of pollutants into our air. It's pretty far from the clean energy Bush claims it is, and I think we should focus on more environmentally conscious energy sources (such as geothermal, solar, wind, and, on a small scale, hydroelectric). But perhaps coal and nuclear energy (both technologies I don't think are good ideas in the long run) will need to be part of our diverse energy mix until the technology is ready for cleaner, greener forms of energy production to take over.
Here are Bush's comments on energy and the environment from the State of the Union Address:
It is in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply - and the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power - by even greater use of clean coal technology ... solar and wind energy ... and clean, safe nuclear power. We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol - using everything from wood chips, to grasses, to agricultural wastes.
We have made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies in Washington and the strong response of the market. Now even more dramatic advances are within reach. Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we have done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years - thereby cutting our total imports by the equivalent of 3/4 of all the oil we now import from the Middle East.
To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory Fuels Standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 - this is nearly 5 times the current target. At the same time, we need to reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light trucks - and conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017.
Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but will not eliminate it. So as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must also step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. And to further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Well, Mr. President, I'll believe it when I see it. Hopefully having a Democratic majority in Congress will help ensure that some strides are taken to curb global warming and improve clean and renewable energy technologies. In the meantime, perhaps we should focus on convincing Americans to use less energy (especially gasoline) and get back to a simpler, greener lifestyle.
Labels: environment/sustainability, politics
