More Bush legacy.
yeah every feel like your getting hosed by your own
I don't see what everyone is whining about. It's what everyone has been demanding- higher prices to force development of alternate fuels.
Besides, This will just speed up the use of modren diesel engines in passenger vehicles, which are not only 20-30 % more fuel efficient than a gas engine, they produce less carbon emisions as well, which will be needed to meet new emission standards.
The USA has been lagging some 40 years behind Europe in the use of diesel engines in passenger cars, part of that reason is because the American public thinks diesel engines are stinky and noisey, which they are if built in detroit, and run on the high sulfer diesel produced in the USA.
Bringing up the standards for diesel fuel will allow the American driver to enjoy what European drivers have for years, quiet, efficient and powerful diesel engines, which are even more practrical and efficient than any hybrid, and cheaper as well.
The increased use of diesel engines will also fit in well with existing infrastructure, utilize alternate fuel blends, such as bio diesel blends, ethanol being a nessesary component in the biodiesel esterfication process, and use existing delivery infrastructure. If you think diesels are noisey, go test drive the Dalmer/Chrysler diesels in some 2007 vehicles. They are very quiet, and don't smell at all. You'd never know you were driving a diesel except for the very pleasant power improvement.
I think renewable fuels will be a Bush legacy, although the dems and the MSM will work overtime not to give Bush or the GOP any credit. IMHO, we need to be hustling to brand this as our success story.
Installed wind capacity in the U.S. has quadrupled since 2000 and we've led the world in new capacity the last couple of years. Ethanol has more than tripled and will double again over the next two years; even without cellulosic ethanol, it will be providing 10% of U.S. transportation fuel needs within a few years. We're the world leader here as well. Biodiesel has gone from essentially zero (2 million gallons a year) in 2000 to 275 million gallons last year and is headed toward 700 million gallons by the end of the decade. (Still a drop in the bucket, however, unless new feedstocks come online.) The first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plants are being built right now. Other renewable technologies are also coming to life.
I am also all for developing tar sands and oil shales, drilling in ANWR and offshore, and building more refineries. I think we're going to need all of it, plus nuclear. Conventional oil has risen from $20 to over $60 a barrel and India and China aren't going to go away. Even if the risk premium disappeared overnight, we're still in a new ballgame on energy.
The dems have been obstructionist on energy development for years. Essentially all they've proposed is higher CAFE standards and harassment of the oil industry. Now that new energy sources are beginning to come online, the dems are shifting their ground and trying to take credit. We shouldn't let them. If you look at the upward point of inflection on the renewable energy growth curves, they have all taken off in the last six years. This is our success story. I'm not inclined to give it away.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe ten years from now, conventional oil will be $25 a barrel. But I think it's liklier to be $100 a barrel and we'll be kicking ourselves for not doing more faster on alternatives.
I thought Bush was a proponent of ANWR as well as drilling in the gulf.
IIRC the President even had a majority in Congress to get this passed....
Oh that’s right it was MINO. (Majority In Name Only)