Big-Oil President Admits Addiction
Immediately Backslides on State of the Union Vow
Kissell for Congress
Thursday, February 2, 2006

Following the President's State of the Union address Tuesday, Knight Ridder reports that the administration is now backing off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports.

Administration Backs off Vow to Reduce Mideast Oil Imports

WASHINGTON - One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are.

The president's State of the Union reference to Mideast oil made headlines nationwide Wednesday because of his assertion that "America is addicted to oil" and his call to "break this addiction."

Bush vowed to fund research into better batteries for hybrid vehicles and more production of the alternative fuel ethanol, setting a lofty goal of replacing "more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025."

He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

Not exactly, though, it turns out.

"This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.

The New York Times further reports that Bush's vow to fund research into producing alternative fuels like ethanol, still years away from widespread commercial use, was also already broken even as he made it.

The Energy Department will begin laying off researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the next week or two because of cuts to its budget.

A veteran researcher said the staff had been told that the cuts would be concentrated among researchers in wind and biomass, which includes ethanol. Those are two of the technologies that Mr. Bush cited on Tuesday night as holding the promise to replace part of the nation's oil imports.

The budget for the laboratory, which is just west of Denver, was cut by nearly 15 percent, to $174 million from $202 million, requiring the layoff of about 40 staff members out of a total of 930, said a spokesman, George Douglas. The cut is for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.

Larry Kissell, Democratic candidate for Congress in North Carolina's 8th District, commented on the development stating "On the one hand, it was encouraging to see our big oil President acknowledge the problem and endorse our agenda to reduce America's dependence on oil, but it's more than discouraging to learn his only commitment to alternative energy is the hot wind he produces himself."

Kissell, considers America's oil addiction as a pressing National Security issue, advocating an aggressive commitment to prepare for a future without oil with home grown, alternative, renewable energy sources rendering us both secure and the world leader in energy production.

He seeks to challenge Republican incumbent Robin Hayes who immediately praised Bush's State of Union speech as a "combination of optimism, realism and vision for the future."

"I thought it was a very Reaganesque look at the future and telling America that our years are still ahead," said Hayes.

"Yes," replied Kissell "but years of what exactly is the question to be put to voters in November."

Fallout Update: Reuters now reports a reversal of Bush's prior reversal in order to offset embarrassment before a photo op.

Jobs cut at energy lab restored before Bush visit

The Energy Department said it has come up with $5 million to immediately restore jobs cut at a renewable energy laboratory President George W. Bush will visit on Tuesday, avoiding a potentially embarrassing moment as the president promotes his energy plan.