Energy Insanity 
 By Molly Ivins 
 AlterNet 
 Tuesday 29 March 2005 
 http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/033105EC.shtml 

 In the long history of monumentally bad ideas,
 the Cheney energy policy is a standout
 for reasons of both omission and commission.
 Dumb, dumber and dumbest. 

 As a general rule about Bush & Co.,
 the more closely a policy is associated with Dick Cheney,
 the worse it is. Which brings us to energy policy
 - remember his secret task force? In the long history of
 monumentally bad ideas, the Cheney policy is a standout for
 reasons of both omission and commission. Dumb, dumber and dumbest. 

 Ponder this: Next year, the administration
 will phase out the $2,000 tax credit for buying a hybrid vehicle,
 which gets over 50 miles per gallon, but
 will leave in place the $25,000 tax write-off for a Hummer,
 which gets 10-12 mpg.
 That's truly crazy, and
 that's truly what the whole Cheney energy policy is. 

 According to the Energy Information Administration in
 the Department of Energy, last year's energy bill (same as
 this one) would cost taxpayers at least $31 billion,
 do nothing about the projected over-80 percent increase in
 America's imports of foreign oil by 2025, and
 increase gasoline prices. (Since every bureaucrat who
 tells the truth in this administration - about the
 cost of the drug bill or the safety of Vioxx - seems to
 get the ax, I'm probably getting those folks in trouble.) 

 The bill is loaded with corporate giveaways and
 tax breaks for big oil. Meanwhile, Bush's budget
 cuts funding for renewable energy research and programs,
 and anyone who tells you different is lying. 

 Now, here's the Catch-22 we get with this administration:
 It is using the exact language of the bill's critics -
 stealing it wholesale and using it to promote its bill.
 It's our friend Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster who
 specializes in "framing" issues (framing means the
 same thing as spinning, and in the non-political world
 it is known as lying), at work again. Luntz put out a memo
 in January: "Eight Energy Communication Guidelines for 2005"
 telling R's how to talk about energy using language people like. 

 The Natural Resources Defense Council found a Bush speech on
 energy on March 9 in Ohio that parrots Luntz's suggestions
 to a laughable point - threat to national security,
 diversity of supply, innovation, conservation and (my fave)
 Point 4, "The key principle is 'responsible energy exploration.'
 And remember, it's NOT drilling for oil. It's
 responsible energy exploration." 

 So there was Bush, as per Luntz's memo, talking about
 "environmentally responsible exploration" and announcing
 one of his top energy objectives is "to diversify our
 energy supply by developing alternative sources of energy."
 Polling shows 70 percent of Americans support a
 drastic increase in government spending on
 renewable energy sources. 

 I'm tired of arguing about whether Bush is so ignorant
 he doesn't know that he is cutting alternative energy
 programs and subsidizing oil companies or so
 fiendishly clever that he knows and doesn't care
 what he says. In the end, it doesn't make any difference.
 You get wretched policy either way. 

 The Apollo Project, a sensible outfit dedicated to
 reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, says
 90 percent of Americans support its goal of
 energy independence. Bracken Hendricks, the
 executive director, points out that there is
 "remarkable agreement among many so-called strange bedfellows
 - labor and business, environmentalists and evangelicals,
 governors and generals, urbanites and farmers." 

 Meanwhile, what we are sticking with is
 soaring oil prices (ExxonMobil just reported
 the highest quarterly profit ever, $8.42 billion,
 by an American company) and declining discoveries.
 Several oil companies are reporting disappearing reserves,
 and Royal Dutch/Shell admitted it had overstated its
 reserves by 20 percent last year. 

 Nor are the major oil companies spending their
 mammoth profits on exploration or field development - they're
 doing mega-mergers and stock buybacks. ExxonMobil spent
 $9.95 billion to buy back its own stock in 2004. The
 Chinese and the Indians are now buying cars like mad,
 and the result is going to be an enormous supply crunch,
 sooner rather than later. 

 It is possible with existing technology to build a car
 that gets 500 miles per gallon, but the Bushies won't even
 raise the CAFE (fuel efficiency) standards for cars
 coming out now. The trouble with the Bush plan to develop
 hydrogen cars is that while you can get hydrogen out of water,
 you have put energy in to get it out, so there's a net
 energy loss. 

 Conservation is simply the cheapest and most effective way of
 addressing this problem. If you put a tax on carbon, it would
 move industry to wind or solar power. Wind power here in Texas
 is at the tipping point now - comparably priced. Our health,
 our environment, our economy and the globe itself would all
 benefit from a transition to renewable energy sources. 

 And as Tom Friedman recently pointed out,
 it would do a lot for world peace, too:
 "By doing nothing to lower U.S. oil consumption,
 we are financing both sides in the war on terrorism and
 strengthening the worst governments in the world. That is,
 we are financing the U.S. military with our tax dollars and
 we are financing the jihadists - and the Saudi, Sudanese
 and Iranian mosques and charities that support them -
 through our gasoline purchases." 


 Molly Ivins is a best-selling author and columnist
 who writes about politics, Texas and other bizarre happenings.
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