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Thursday, February 10, 2005

State of the Union part 2

In an earlier post I commented on Bush’s state of the union speech and said that actions speak louder then words, here’s an example. He said:

To keep our economy growing, we also need reliable supplies of affordable, environmentally responsible energy. (Applause.) Nearly four years ago, I submitted a comprehensive energy strategy that encourages conservation, alternative sources, a modernized electricity grid, and more production here at home -- including safe, clean nuclear energy.


But in reality the President promptly offered a plan that cuts -- yes, cuts -- renewable energy and energy efficiency programs by 4 percent.
Other interesting notes from the League of Conservation Voters:
Arctic Drilling
The President's budget once again assumes revenues from drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Perhaps nobody told the President that there are no revenues from drilling in the Refuge, since Congress has time and time again, rejected opening the sensitive habitat to oil and gas exploration. Didn't this kind of clever accounting get companies such as Enron in trouble?
Oceans
Late last year, President Bush offered a glimmer of hope for the nation's oceans by announcing an action plan to combat problems facing our seas. But environmentalists were wary, saying follow-through and funding was key. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Bush Administration's budget requests a nearly 40 percent cut to the National Ocean Service and slashes funding for the National Marine Fisheries Service by 12 percent. So much for helping our oceans...
National Parks
A modest increase to address a backlog in maintenance in the National Park system comes up woefully short of what is needed. President Bush has fallen $4 billion short of his 2000 campaign pledge of $5 billion to take care of the problem.

1 Comments:

At 10:37 AM, Blogger Rubes said...

You seem very up on what the federal government is doing in regards to engery. Have you heard anything about the promotion of wind energy? Last week in Genesee County, the Cornell Coop. Ext. and Genesee County gov't sponsored a day long topic at the Commun. college regarding wind energy. They had a wide distribution of speakers for the general public to listen to and question. Seems the county would like to promote landowners agreeing to use of sections of their land to put up large windmills in the higher elevations. Guess they are saying that we have a lot of wind. :) But it does sound like a sound and clean idea for creating energy. What do you know about this? I'd be interested.

 

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