Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Conserving is key to independence

President Bush was right to declare in his State of the Union speech that "America is addicted to oil." Changing Americans' wasteful habits will require more than plain Texas talk. It also will require more serious measures than the president has offered. While spending more on research, new technologies and alternative fuel would make a difference, real progress toward self-sufficiency demands a new way of thinking on everything from how America rewards its farmers and automakers to how governments plan cities and view mass transit.

Bush said he would spend more on clean-energy research - solar, wind and nuclear power - and called for a fundamental shift in "how we power our automobiles." Researchers blame automobiles for nearly half the 20-million barrels of oil the United States burns each day. Stronger batteries for electric cars, another of the president's goals, could open up the market for hybrid vehicles. Bush also called for replacing 75 percent of our oil imports from the Mideast by 2025. Even two decades out that strategy looks sound, given the turmoil in Iraq, Israel, Iran and elsewhere.

But this is addiction treatment on the cheap. Real progress will require bolder steps, from raising fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles to offering incentives for conservation. The Bush administration should end price supports that undercut the use of alternative fuels. Taxing Brazilian ethanol, while subsidizing production from domestic corn, sends a mixed message. So do statements like the one by Energy Secretary Sam Bodwin, who hours after the president spoke dismissed conservation as a policy tool. "Many Americans believe they're already sacrificing by paying the prices they're paying for gasoline," he said.

This attitude hardly promotes Bush's stated goal to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy." The nation already should be leading the world in clean-energy research. The bigger challenge is to use tax and regulatory incentives to move consumers away from the SUV culture. But lighter vehicles can do only so much. Washington needs to help states improve mass transit and reward communities that limit sprawl and steer new development into established urban areas. Rail and buses need to figure into planning decisions just as water, schools and other essential services already do. Bush deserves credit for using the spotlight to highlight an addiction that compromises the nation's economy and security. But the problem should be framed as one of consumption rather than one of supply.

[Last modified February 13, 2006, 00:45:19]