Win, Lose, and Law

Bush signs diluted energy bill into law

Posted at 9:45 AM on 19 Dec 2007

President Bush today signed an energy bill into law that the House passed yesterday and the Senate passed last week. The bill increases fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, mandates the use of at least 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year by 2022, raises efficiency standards for some appliances, and will eventually phase out many inefficient light bulbs. "Today we make a major step toward reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels, and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner, and more secure," Bush said at the signing ceremony. Bush had threatened to veto the bill earlier due to now-dropped provisions that required utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewables, as well as a provision that would have invested billions of dollars in renewables by cutting tax breaks and subsidies to the oil and gas industry. But Bush is hoping future generations don't hear about that.

sources: Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post

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Comments: (5 comments)

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re: auto mileage standards...

Better cars mean more sprawl. If you want to accomplish something, work for free public transit.

by socialscientist at 10:01 AM on 19 Dec 2007

Effect Of Higher Mileage Standards

Forcing manufacturers to build cars that get better gas mileage will only have a very negligible effect on sprawl. People don't live far from work because their cars get good mileage; they do so because they either don't like the communities near their work or can't afford the type of home they want in those communities. While free public transit coupled with good transit systems -- which necessarily means either underground subway systems and eliminating private motor vehicles from some bus routes -- will get more people out of cars, it won't influence people who don't want, or claim they can't afford, to live in cities to begin with.

by Wolverine at 10:57 AM on 19 Dec 2007

CAFE increase would be natural....

...anyway, given increasing fuel prices. There are a large variety of cars which already do much better than 35MPG, so it's not as if we can't already achieve those standards.

by Tasermons Partner at 11:17 AM on 19 Dec 2007

Better MPG does NOT mean more sprawl

Why would you think that?

Sprawl is a matter of bad zoning.
Workplaces are zoned together, living spaces are zoned seperately, and commercial areas are zoned away from both.

So, you work in one place, and drive to another. It was the Model of the future a generation or two ago...but it's ghastly archaic today.

Plus, in areas where the zoning overlaps (cities), the education infrastructure is so dilapidated, no one wants to raise a family there...so they move away to the suburbs.

More MPG will just mean they save more $, and cause less pollution along the way. Of all the long(er) distance commuters I know, none break down the gas cost to the MPG...it's just "gas." And that gets factored into the whole equation.

Increased gas costs help keep the people I know working further away, because the higher wages are even more important...

by TheSSG at 4:41 PM on 19 Dec 2007

2007 Energy Bill Guarantees Disaster Ahead

George Bush and the US Senate should be deeply ashamed of advancing the self-destruction of the human species. "Bush" will forever be a "four letter word". Scientists agree that global climate change, assisted and accelerated by human activities, is well under way and must be reversed inside of the next 10 years or dire circumstances will strike. Bush's crime is to enshrine "too little, too late" as the policy of the US. Senate Republicans share the blame. Weak Democratic members of the House should be condemned for giving in to Republican and Senate short-sightedness. The "President from Oil" has assured maximum oil company profits (as stockpiles shrink), pork-barrel biofuels boondoggles, and pathetically inadequate levels of energy conservation and auto efficiency (CAFE standards). The loss of real financial and policy supports for solar, wind, energy conservation, and energy efficiency (costing millions compared with many billions for oil and auto industries) will guarantee anguish and suffering that will make the 1929 market crash and subsequent depression look like a warm summer holiday. Grandchildren worldwide will curse December 18, 2007, and the US, with a level of contempt that far exceeds September 11.

by Yikes at 10:30 PM on 20 Dec 2007

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