In his State of the Union address tonight, President
Bush expected to lay out his priorities on energy, global warming, and the
environment. In many instances the President’s stated goals of combating global
warming and making the U.S. more energy independent have been in no way matched
by actions. We applaud his support of the energy bill which past last year. But
much more needs to be done.
Expert contacts are at the end of
this email.
Renewable Energy:
Tonight the President is expected to announce he is “dedicated
to strong growth in renewable electricity generation.” This is in direct
contradiction to his threats to veto legislation last year that would have
established a national renewable electricity standard and extended crucial tax
incentives for the renewable energy industry. These two policies are critical to
insuring the long term growth of renewable energy in this country. In the short
term, the President must work with Congress to extend the clean energy tax
incentives that expire by the end of this year as soon as possible. He must also
voice his support for a national renewable electricity standard.
Global Warming: In
a bit of deja vu from a year ago, the President is expected to mention global
warming in his address tonight but fail to endorse the key policies needed to
actually solve the problem. Most notably, we expect the President to stop short
of calling for a mandatory cap on global warming pollution, even though such a
cap is essential to achieving the pollution cuts scientists say are needed in
order to protect future generations from the worst effects of global
warming.
Fuel Economy: The
President is also expected to highlight the signing of legislation that will
require cars to achieve 35 miles per gallon by 2020. He will likely fail to
mention that on the very same day that he signed the energy bill into law, the
EPA undermined a powerful global warming pollution reduction tool available to
states by denying California and twelve other states the right
to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles. This misguided decision by the Bush
administration flies in the face of overwhelming public support for
policy-makers to combat global warming and just serves as a further illustration
of President Bush’s refusal to take the actions necessary to protect our
environment and public health and to fight global warming.
Nuclear Power:
Nuclear energy is an expensive technology that does not offer
a solution to global warming. Nuclear facilities will cost billions to construct
and take decades to come on line, and then will have security and waste disposal
problems. Serious action to combat global warming will mean investment in the
cleanest, cheapest and quickest ways to reducing carbon emissions—renewable
energy and energy efficiency.
Coal: Clean coal is
a myth. Coal is an inherently dirty fuel that pollutes our air, our water, and
our pristine places. If we are going to be serious about fighting global warming
then we need to move away from dirty fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas
and toward clean renewable sources. We should invest in truly clean technologies
like wind, solar, biomass and geothermal and not continue to sink billions of
dollars into dirty coal.
Offshore Drilling:
Tonight the President is expected to urge Congress to end the
27 year bipartisan moratorium on new offshore drilling. Offshore drilling is
the slowest, dirtiest and most expensive way to produce energy. Opening our
coasts to drilling would do little to lower consumer prices or make us energy
independent, but would threaten our beaches with pollution and potential oil
spills and put our coastal tourism economy at risk. We cannot drill our way to
energy security.
Environment America policy staff available for comment on the
State of the Union:
Energy and global warming – Anna Aurilio (202-725-2068)
asquared@environmentamerica.org
Global Warming—Nathan Willcox (215-627-3672)
nwillcox@pennenvironment.org
Energy—Kate Johnson (215-256-8502) katej@environmentamerica.org
Clean Energy Incentives --Sean Garren (617-304-1409)
seang@environmentamerica.org
Fuel Economy, Nuclear, Coal Subsidies--Ben Schreiber
(301-706-6947) bens@environmentamerica.org
Offshore oil drilling-- Mike Gravitz (301-351-5052)
mikeg@environmentamerica.org
