Thomas Friedman has a superb column in Sundays' New York Times about what he calls the Bush administration's "massive, fraudulent, pathetic excuse for an energy policy." And it gets better after that.
He discusses how everything the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans have proposed would further INCREASE our dependence on oil, rather than decreasing that dependence as we need to be doing. And even the steps that might (very temporarily, and only after a significant lag time) decrease our dependence on FOREIGN oil would, by reducing the market incentives for conversion to renewable resources, ultimately increase our dependence not only on oil generally, but also on foreign oil.
The following analogy of Bush administration policy to a drug pusher is spot on:
Get Saudi Arabia, our chief oil pusher, to up our dosage for a little while and bring down the oil price just enough so the renewable energy alternatives can’t totally take off. Then try to strong arm Congress into lifting the ban on drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: "C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude."
The bill is necessary to extend renewable energy tax credits that will otherwise expire at the end of the year, but renewal is being blocked by Republicans. It passed the House by a vote of 263-160. For those who insist that Democrats are just as bad as Republicans because they're not perfect, the vote among House Democrats was 228-1 in favor of the bill. Among House Republicans, it was 35-159 against the bill.
The bill is now pending in the Senate, where cloture has already failed twice, on 6/10 and 6/17. Most Senate Republicans voted against cloture, and there appear to be 43 solid votes against cloture (maybe 44, if McCain votes with the other Republicans). The only Democratic vote against cloture was that of Harry Reid, who clearly did so only in order to be able to move for reconsideration of the cloture vote (which he's done both times).
If you care about developing renewable energy, which means if you care about preserving a reasonable climate and reducing our dependence on foreign oil, please call your Senator on Monday and ask him or her to support cloture and the bill.