In their second term, most presidents begin to think about how history will rank and remember them, and surely it will be no different for George W. Bush. With less than three years remaining in office, he has a chance to leave an enduring legacy if he earnestly promotes alternative energy supplies to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
In preparation for his State of the Union speech last month, the president suddenly found religion about renewable energy and efficiency. Tomorrow, he will visit the National Renewable Energy Laboratories in Golden.
For five years, the Bush administration has fought or ignored almost every effort to develop renewable fuel sources or support energy conservation. Indeed, the administration hasn’t been NREL’s friend or protector, but let today be the first step on an important journey together.
Energy use ties directly to our era’s most pressing global and domestic issues, from national security to economic prosperity to environmental worry. For years, the administration’s primary answer to the dilemma has been to ramp up domestic oil and gas drilling, but we cannot drill our way out of the problem. Look at the math: The United States has roughly 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves and 5 percent of Earth’s population, but consumes about 25 percent of global oil production. And now we see China and India, with such large populations, becoming more industrialized and creating a seller’s market in the volatile Middle East oil fields.
Since Bush took office, NREL’s funding has dropped from $214 million in 2004 to $201 million last year. When critics complained that Bush’s 2007 budget would cut the labs to just $162 million, his aides countered that other programs would add back in some $15 million. But that still leaves NREL short of where it was last year and every year since 2001. Even as the president tours the lab tomorrow, the funding cutback is forcing the lab to lay off dozens of workers. Talented scientists and engineers will leave for steady work elsewhere, and important research projects will just sit on the shelf.
The president can reverse NREL’s fortunes and steer the country toward a steady course of efficient and clean energy use. In his remaining years in office, Bush should build consistent, bipartisan support for clean sources of electricity and alternatives to gasoline and diesel.
Other countries have done so. Since the 1970s, Brazil has promoted ethanol from sugar cane an alternative to gasoline, and today is basically energy self-sufficient.
In the 1970s, staunch anti-Communist Richard M. Nixon became the president who went to China. In 2006, George W. Bush could become the oil man who embraced renewable energy.
