Bush pushes “alternative” fuels plan, critics push back
President Bush got bizzy promoting his new energy goals yesterday, taking his message to a DuPont biofuels facility in Delaware and signing an executive order requiring federal agencies to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles — including plug-in hybrids when they become available. But Bush’s plan to cut gasoline use 20 percent in 10 years by pushing alternative fuels and improving fuel efficiency isn’t flying with everyone. The plan “not only does not go far enough, but may actually, in some cases … increase greenhouse-gas emissions,” said California state EPA Secretary Linda Adams. With the focus on “alternative” fuels including not only renewables but also sources like liquefied coal and tar sands, said a Rice University energy expert, “We are going dirtier.” National Environmental Trust President Philip Clapp summed up the collective national sigh thusly: “There is no revolution in global-warming policy in anything the president is proposing, no matter how the White House tries to spin it.”
