I suppose I should write some insightful comments about Bush's upcoming State of the Union speech, which everyone expects to be sucky, since the guy's a lame duck and everyone hates him.
There are lots of emails and PR releases flying around, fact-checking previous SOTUs and promising to fact-check tonight's. To summarize: Everything he's said on environmental subjects in previous SOTUs has turned out to be bullshit, and there's every reason to believe that anything he says in tonight's SOTU on environmental subjects will turn out to be bullshit.
You're welcome!
One interesting tidbit, from Greenwire (sub rqd): A group of 39 House members -- 25 Republicans and 14 Democrats -- sent Bush a letter (PDF) asking him to shill for clean coal in tonight's speech. It says:
Your forthcoming State of the Union address presents an excellent opportunity to promote increased coal utilization through the further development of clean coal technologies that can provide Americans with a secure source of affordable energy, while managing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy generation efficiency.
You have to wonder: if coal is so cheap and it's so easy to capture and sequester the emissions, why are the industry and its Congressional lackeys focused on getting more government handouts? Is this the way competitive industries behave?
UPDATE: Ah, a correspondent reminds me of two things you'll likely hear tonight. One, Bush will take credit for the energy bill that boosted CAFE standards, and will cast it as a groundbreaking carbon reduction strategy rather than the middling half-step it is. Two, he will trumpet the ongoing Major Economies Meetings (the second of which will convene in Hawaii this week), casting them as brave U.S. leadership on the international stage rather than a transparent attempt to circumvent and short-circuit the UN process.
Both these were implicitly covered in the "bullshit" comment above, but they're worth calling out.
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GreenEngineer Posted 4:39 am
28 Jan 2008
In all fairness, you could direct exactly the same question at the solar PV or wind industries.
I think the reality is that this is how the energy industry behaves, at least in this country. I can't think of a single significant aspect of the energy industry that isn't either subsidized or regulated in such a way as to protect certain players from competition.
Needless to say, I don't think that the comparison between clean coal and PV is particularly apt, but I think that this is a comparison that will be immediately drawn by someone who isn't already on board with the idea that energy sources without externalities are better than energy sources that have externalities. In other words, I think that this particular rhetorical point is effective only when "preaching to the choir", which is not what you're interested in doing. IMO, that's a good reason to find a different rhetorical tactic.
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David Roberts Posted 4:49 am
28 Jan 2008
Perhaps the more relevant point is that renewable energy is currently booming and attracting intense private investment, while government largesse is increasingly the only source of investment in new coal.
Doesn't quite trip off the tongue ...
grist.org
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GreyFlcn Posted 4:51 am
28 Jan 2008
(Or even higher stakes, if he doesn't mention biofuels as a primary focus of his environmental argument)
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GreyFlcn Posted 4:56 am
28 Jan 2008
All while ironically sabre rattling about why we need to attack Iran because they might constitute a nuclear program.
_
Also of course similiar to Coal in it's calling for government bailouts.
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JMG Posted 5:01 am
28 Jan 2008
Save the world: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.
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Sean Casten Posted 5:09 am
28 Jan 2008
And if it is in the national interest, why bother building a big power plant around it? Hell, we'd use it a lot faster if we just dug it out of the ground and burned it on the spot. Maybe we could empty our wallets out in the fire as well in the name of economic stimuli.
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Sir Oolius Posted 5:34 am
28 Jan 2008
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