State of the Union - Open Thread
by
Terra Rossa
January 22nd, 2007
What role will energy policy play in Tuesday night’s speech? What are your predictions about what President Bush will say?
Join our open thread conversation.
This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 10:43 am and is filed under Climate Change, Politics/Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Wouldn’t it be great if he used a power point slide presentation.
January 22nd, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Bush is too conservative to admit he was wrong about the environment. He’d much rather leave Iraq than side with the “green hippies”. However, he may say some of the stuff that’s said here. Cut the fear-mongering, avoid the global warming, and tie it to terrorism. He might say something involving that.
One thing he won’t do is say that global warming is real. The jury is still out on that issue and will porbably be out for quite some time. He’ll avoid any mention of that. He’ll probably say we should use the free market to make alternative fuels. And fight the Democratic taxes on Big Oil (which is not run by Satan)
January 22nd, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Hopefully Bush will get tough on energy and get people excited about new energy, and to keep an open mind about other energy sources. It would be nice too if he scolded the Left on screaming for new energy but being against drilling in Alaska, new refineries, nuclear energy and wind farms when they slightly effect the view from your beach house in Hyannis Port. We can hope.
January 22nd, 2007 at 9:34 pm
It best play a huge portion, for this nation needs to starve terrorism, not feed terrorism.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:11 am
What about oil sands in Canada?
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 am
We can hope. Alternative energy sources are already available from Brazil, a more-or-less stable democracy and pluralistic culture. More than investments, what’s needed is reduction of trade barriers so that raw vegetable oils for biodiesel production and ethanol can be imported to the States. Sounds simple? It is. And could have an immediate impact on our fuel requirements.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
It is amazing to me how the ‘intellectuals’ in this country are so blind that they cannot see the truth and are so unwilling to disrobe their arrogance to understand reality.
We are at war because oil rich countries have fueled the fire of hatred against the very people who are their best customers.
There is nothing wrong with using Oil for fuel. The physics make it the best solution but the lack of technological advancements in the combution engine, thank you Detriot, have not been forthcoming. The ‘intellectuals’ extemporaneously blame America for poluting the world but they wont tell you how inefficient enegy is being wasted in places like China, Russia and India. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you need to look for the brown cloud that hangs over south east Asia. America may consume a significant amount of oil but she produces a significant amount of it too.
I compare our past inginuity in developing a highly efficient combution engine that uses 90-95% of the fuel and produces 90-95% less airborn polutants and our ability to get to the moon, the ISS (that is the International Space Station for you ‘intellectuals’) as the comparision between bows and arrows and the laser beam guided missile.
It is time that America girded her loins and started to innovate new technology specifically in the areas of Nuclear energy, High efficient Combution, Solar (lets use some of that Global Warming every fool in the world is concern about to heat homes (I am smiling at the intellectuals.)) Lets educate the children rather than brain washing them to believe that we are all doomed. Lets recreate the greatest society that ever lived right here in America, where it once was.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:35 am
Whatever President Bush says about alternative energy you can bet congress will totally agree….however their plan to provide energy with ethanol is a terrible plan at the expense of the American Public at large. Ethanol is a terrible fuel and the automakers have not provided a feasible motor or auto system which can use that fuel in an economical way which makes any sense at all except it will cause an undue hardship to all. To put it in simple terms, if we use ethanol as the major alternative fuel the average cost of a gallon of ethanol will be approximately 40% more expensive than a gallon of unleaded fuel at the present time. And guess who gets to pay for all the new technology, refueling stations, transport trucking to market etc, you guessed it,,,the average american. The oil companies love this because they will make even more money than they do now with next to no effort…..using corn as an alternate fuel source,,,,sounds corny to me….what a whacky idea….except it makes huge profits for a few….
We have a lot of energy resources in the US and it looks like no one anywhere realizes we cant drive the big gas guzzlers without affecting all other americans….there will probably come a day when anyone would love to have a micro compact like the Chevrolet Aveo…and even that
vehicle is not as economical to operate as it should be. So all kidding aside, American wake up before its too late,,,,reality will show up in the near future and you will understand the availablity of fossil fuels will not be as readily available or at a reasonable price.
One other question, shouldnt the oil and energy producers be leading the cause for independence from foreign oil sources?? Seems strange we dont ever hear anything from them about any type of resouce conservation.
After considering and reviewing all types of fuels it looks like more consideration should be given to Liquid
Propane….it burns cleaner,,,,its a better fuel than ethanol and we have a fundamental system across the us in place that could be used to dispense the fuel,,,there are propane companies everywhere so there shouldnt be as much concern about revamping the delivery system to consumers and a real added benefit is all cars and trucks can be converted to LP fairly easily.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:49 am
Propane is an excellent alternative but likewise finite. And I agree that first and foremost conservation measures need to be implemented if any plan is to work. Ethanol doesn’t provide all the answers. But reliable, efficient, ethanol engines are being produced and purchased on a large scale in Brazil. More than 60% of the cars purchased last year had ethanol or fuel flex engines. The problem is corn based ethanol, certainly not viable. Sugar cane ethanol, however, is developing an enviable track record in Brazil. And the remaining sugar cane straw after extraction is being burned in power plants, significantly cleaner than coal.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:53 am
What is needed is for the environmental wackos to stop the fear mongering over gobal warming. There isn’t any scientific proof of this, and don’t start with the polar caps are melting. The earth goes through stages of warming and cooling (scientific fact). What is needed is for the President and Congress to stop listening to the enviornmental wackos and allow exploration and drilling for energy sources on our own soil such as in Alaska and off our own coasts. Technology has advanced oil and natural gas exploration enough that the chance of an accident would be minimal. Stop the fear mongering over massive oil spills, allow exploration, and start building new refineries in THIS country.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:04 am
I don’t understand why we don’t talk about using geothermal to heat our homes. Wouldn’t it be easy to build new homes with geothermal systems to heat with and heat water with? Also, the heat-on-demand hot water systems would save on oil, too.
Why do we only talk about cars? Why not the tremendous amounts of energy used to heat homes, offices, factories….? I wish President would also speak about this.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:15 am
Open up the eastern Gulf of Mexico to drilling, heck, Cuba is drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in its own water, closer to Florida than we can. The price of a barrel started dropping last summer the day after Gulf announced its Jack discovery in the central gulf of Mexico, proving up a field of trillions of barrels. But with the whole of the eastern one third of the gulf no exploration is allowed because of the environment concern.
Detroit must get into the gas saving business also, I have a Prius and it does not get the 60 mpg as advertised (hwy usually 43 mpg) unless you are driving downhill for an hour. Yet Toyota can just put it on the sticker and make everybody feel good and sell lots of cars. How do they get away with it? Give us a reality check Detroit.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:01 am
Don’t knock the Prius, or Toyota. They make the best everyday cars in the world. I am a conservative driving a Prius - we use off peak electricity 85% of the time and live 45 miles from the largest nuclear power plant in the U.S. All of these and more will help wean ourselves from Hugo Chavez and CITGO. I get 46/47 miles per gallon with my Prius driving 80 miles per hour on I-10 (800 miles round trip to Los Angeles) This trip takes me through the Palm Springs to Whitewater intense overdevelopment of energy producing windmills. They don’t run 24/7, they are ugly, and the overhead electrical collection cables running parallel to I-10 completely destroy the AM radio reception. I can’t listen to Rush on KFI because of this noise pollution.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:06 am
I wish a strong movement would start to open this nation’s eyes over the Green’s misrepresenting all matters on global warming, oil and environment. They have manufactured a living on burdensome, regulatory environmental McCarthyism. We should all remember the underhanded way Clinton and Gore made off-limits to mining public parks out of the cleanest coal fields in America. This was to serve their own personal investments in foreign financial conflict of interests. The liberal democrats were responsible for closing off our own resources from the Green’s pressures.
We need an immediate executive order to open all production resources and waive all unreasonable environmental restrictions to our production capabilities. Nuclear facilities and new refineries need to have fast-track clearances to be built immediately. Bush has be the backbone to do what is right despite the poles on Iraq. It would be great if could “do what’s right on energy” and stick to the Greens before he leaves office with sweeping fast-track waivers on all production resources. Oh yeah, one last thing, Gore and his Greens are liars and bastards.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:51 am
Bush’s cheap labor push will destroy America. End the H-1b tyranny. Deport illegal aliens and seize the assets of businesses who employ them. Bad business drives out good business. Impeach the incompetent war-monger Bush. Protect our borders. Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul or Duncan Hunter for president.
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:03 pm
The concept of ‘global warming’ is a liberal-induced, media perpetuated farce designed to scare and manipulate the uneducated minds of the world. An excellent book, roughly titled “Earth Matters,” clearly explains the geological history, and climatological changes and patterns of temperature fluctuations from geological evidence.
Unfortunately, simple-minded people are easily deluded into taking various sides of one or more issues without ever having done objective research. The single greatest weapon used against such under-informed people is guilt. Guilt, the power to manipulate others, is rooted in the coercive strategy to condemn another person through their own feelings of inadequacy, weakness, depravity, or other insecurity. As such, guilt is falsely foisted upon the global citizenry that our ‘excesses,’ our habits,’ our ‘needs,’ have been mismanaged, and using the ’sins of the father’ concept, mistakenly mislabeled us as failures…forever beholden to such ignorant mistakes of the past that we are forever failures to decide our future.
The liberal mindset, those people too ignorant and lazy to accomplish objective research, those too willing to follow some popular icon - false prophets, the Bible has called them, should be placed on trial for Sedition. The 1st Amendment does not offer free-speech protections for ignorance, for causing strive and increasing burdens upon other global citizens. It’s against the law to yell “fire” in a crowded movie theatre. Altruism is an intellectual in spiritual failure.
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
What President Bush won’t tell you, is how he is giving away America and it’s sovreignty through the SPP act that he signed with Mexico and Canada. He won’t tell you about how the Republican Party cowtows to the left and MSM and doesn’t give a hoot about the American people, but only their own pocket books. He won’t tell you that their is no longer any difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party and giving money to either one of them is simply a bad investment. A Republican no more Ken
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Altruism has a strong genetic base however, the real problem is overpopulation of the earth and spiralling desire and demand. The explosion of technology and consumption in the so-called developing nations including, pertinently China, will further stress limited natural resources. The west can set a new example of moderation and sustainable living practices. Australia has always had the opportunity to lead with solar however current Government policy is supportive of the coal / fossil fuel industry allegedly because the Prime Minister has mates and relatives in the business. Climate change happens in every micro-second and across millennia, however, that does not mean that there is no human impact on the natural world. We need to relearn our once innate connection with nature. We need to understand the true nature of the human soul, the human person and find satisfaction and gratification in our being rather than through consumption. We need to find mirrors of the self in nature and learn to respect our natural living biosphysical environment without which we have no life. I suggest that all Americans, whether they belive in global warming or climate change, simply ask for conscionable government and a lifestyle where each and every one of you is happy, has a home, has good nutrition, enjoys open and free education and health care, has opportunity for well-paid employment and is able to generate a little energy from solar or wind generation as well as a lot of goodwill for the rest of the planet.
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:37 pm
I know one thing he WILL NOT talk about, him or any other politician in this country will talk about, the immigration problem. When 85 % of this countries legal, law abiding, tax paying citizens are against their new proposed legislation on immigration and the elected officals don’t listen to their constituents they are not going to keep listening to them. Politics has gotten so legally corrupt in this country. The Stae of the Union is sad and over-burderned with ILLEGAL IMMIGRATES that what it is. Great to be a tax payer…….isn’t it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 24th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Until the fifth column on the left side of the isle stops sabotaging the administration to enhance its fortunes in 2008, there is no hope of a satisfactory conclusion of the problem that is blocking action on virtually every other policy, including energy. Moreover, if our energy policy continues to be as utterly insane as making ethanol from corn, we will continue to be better off without one. Can’t this country find politicians who are not technically incompetent charlatans too stupid or duplicitous to consult scientists and economists?