Energy Time

Al Hubbard, the economic adviser who’s coordinating the administration’s energy strategy, recently promised that President Bush would produce “headlines above the fold that will knock your socks off in terms of our commitment to energy independence.” Every president since Richard Nixon has talked this way, while every year the country slides further into dependency. Mr. Bush’s overpromising has included a forecast that we would all be buying hydrogen-fueled cars in 20 years and his pledge a year ago to rid the country of its addiction to oil.

Still, we must hope that Mr. Bush is serious this time, because we simply cannot continue to hold our national security and the health of the planet hostage to our appetite for fossil fuels.

America’s closest allies, and increasingly its governors, know this. Last week, the European Union — shaken by Russia’s threatened shutdown of oil passing through Belarus — announced a menu of initiatives aimed at reducing Europe’s dependence on unreliable suppliers while cutting greenhouse gas emissions with cleaner fuels and new technologies.

Here at home, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered his regulators in California to require fuel oil companies and refiners to start reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases. The order is expected to help jump-start the production of biofuels and, over time, hydrogen for fuel cell cars. It follows an earlier California directive requiring more fuel-efficient vehicles, and represents an important element in the state’s broad plan to cut global-warming emissions from all sources by 25 percent by 2020.

International Herald Tribune