Bush Energy Plan Irks Critics from Free Market Camp

WASHINGTON – Critics lashed out at President Bush over his proposals to break America’s oil addiction, contending the plan will undercut the basis of America’s strong economy, misdirect the country’s energy reform priorities, or further poison an already fragile environment.

In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Mr. Bush, a former Texas oilman, raised eyebrows when he proclaimed that America is “addicted to oil” and unveiled his “Advanced Energy Initiative” to replace more than 75% of the nation’s Middle East oil imports by 2025. The Advanced Energy Initiative promises a 22% increase in “clean-energy research” at the Department of Energy. The president has spent almost $10 billion on developing alternative energy sources since 2001, and outlined Tuesday almost $1 billion in spending on solar, wind, clean coal, and ethanol energy in the 2007 budget.

A former CIA director who has long advocated energy independence as a means of protecting national security, James Woolsey, said yesterday that he gave the president’s address “two cheers” for taking on energy issues, but said that it failed to address some main obstacles to oil independence.

Mr. Woolsey praised the president’s advocacy of “cellulosic ethanol,” or ethanol derived from non-oil plant products, such as leaves and stalks. The fuel’s popularity among environmentalists, observers said yesterday, was likely the reason for its inclusion in the State of the Union.

New York Sun