An Interesting Analysis of Last Night's Speech

A fascinating and sometimes snarky analysis..."The Semantic State of the Union."

Link: http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=504&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286

As expected, the president only addressed global climate change once, with the statement that "These technologies will help us become better stewards of the environment -- and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change." The US needs to address climate change supported by something more than a belief that technology will be our savior, the belief that technology will save us from the fact that most Americans are not strong stewards of the the environment because they are neither financially nor ethically compelled to be so. Fundamentally changing how we produce and use energy is needed.

His mention of raising CAFE standards is long overdue, say two decades overdue in fact, and part of the reason for that is because of the influence of American automakers, who have been soundly thumped by Japanese manufacturers for years. I support raising CAFE standards and strongly funding R&D of cellulosic ethanol, but changing the status quo in regard to smokestack pollution and energy plants is necessary.

And it's obvious that this administration doesn't want to harness market forces to reduce and regulate CO2 emissions. On Monday, a coalition of business leaders and environmental groups called upon the administration to address climate change in a comprehensive manner. Link: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12078

While Bush's speech had a few good but vague energy policy ideas on the surface, he's pretty much "staying the course" on the global warming and true change about our country's energy policies. From my eyes, the speech in this regard was mostly hokum and rhetorical gladhanding. But maybe Bush's lapdog Blair can introduce him to Sir Nicholas Stern and some change can come about?

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6096084.stm