Bush Signs Energy Bill Mandating Tougher Efficiency Standards
By Daniel Whitten
bloomberg.com
Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush today signed legislation aimed at cutting U.S. dependence on overseas energy by setting tougher mandates for carmakers, electric- appliance manufacturers and ethanol producers.
The law contains the first new vehicle fuel economy law in 32 years and mandates a fourfold increase in the use of biofuels. It also phases out traditional light bulbs and places the first limits on the amount of water used in new washing machines and dishwashers.
The new law is “ 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 before signing the legislation at the Department of Energy in Washington.
Bush pinpointed ethanol production and new fuel economy standards in his January State of the Union address as crucial elements in meeting his goal of cutting gasoline use by 20 percent by 2017.
The legislation was sent to the White House last night in a hybrid Toyota Prius, according to an e-mail from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the law would save the average driver between $700 and $1,000 per year in gasoline costs. (more…)
(LOL!) Man, the stuff these folks do for PR purposes.
Ethanol production has been a very hot topic amongst poorer countries because it cuts into their food supply. So in other words, while you are cruising in your hybrid, poor folks in these countries now have to share their food supply so that you can save the environment and stop global warming. After all, we know what is best for them!
The ethanol food crisis
Terence Corcoran, Financial Post
———->Published: Tuesday, April 10, 2007< ———–
The latest “science” report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change landed Friday, but it contains not a word on the latest climate-science fiasco. Somewhere there should have been a typical IPCC alarm-riddled sentence to alert us to a very real and immediate climate crisis: the ethanol-food disaster.
As the IPCC might have said: “As a result of misguided attempts to mitigate the global climate-change scare we’ve created, it is extremely likely (with a 99% degree of certainty) that governments will introduce energy-control programs and subsidy regimes for biofuels and other products that have a 70% chance of bringing chaos to other markets, such as food supply. It is very likely such policies, including massive subsidies for corn and mandated ethanol use, will cause prices to rise by as much as 50% and disrupt basic distribution networks, triggering a chain reaction of inflationary forces that would be felt most by vulnerable populations in low-lying urban areas not on the receiving line of massive farm handouts.”
On the other hand, there’s no need for the IPCC to make such predictions, since all of the above is already happening. Thanks in large part to Bush and Harper government programs to subsidize and support ethanol production, food prices are starting to rise. The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported on soaring crop prices that are boosting food-price inflation all over the world.
One of the chief causes of rising food prices, said the Journal, is new demand for ethanol and biodiesel, energy products that can be made from corn, palm oil, sugar and other crops. Global grain stocks are at their lowest in 30 years. By next year, about 30% of the U.S. grain harvest is likely to be devoted to ethanol production, up from 16% in 2006, says the Journal. (more…)
