As a fellow long-suffering Democrat, I was heartened today to see the leader of my country actually do something right.
Today
Bush visited a biodiesel refinery, and touted the need to rid ourselves of our dependence on foreign oil :
"Our dependence on foreign oil is like a foreign tax on the American dream, and that tax is growing every year," Bush said at the Virginia BioDiesel Refinery about 140 miles south of Washington.
More importantly in my opinion, he singled out biodiesel as a promising fuel:
"Biodiesel is one of our nation's most promising alternative fuel sources and by developing biodiesel you're making this country less dependent on foreign sources of oil," he said.
The complete transcript is here (peppered with predictable death tax and tort reform rhetoric).
As someone who is just now starting to realize the importance and viability of biodiesel, I think this is an incredibly positive step. It is doubly amazing to consider that, not only did Bush do something right for a change, his promotion of a clean oil source that is not something that can be drilled-for is not the kind of thing his Big Oil buddies would like to hear in such a public way. For one of the very few times since January of 2000, I believe Bush put the country ahead of corporate greed. Sure, he also stressed the importance of domestic drilling (ANWR), but that's to be expected.
I am quite sure biodiesel could not have reached this level of mainstream acceptance had it not been for the many brave, clever, pioneering souls that have worked so hard for so long trying to show that biodiesel is a viable alternative fuel. To these folks, I give a hearty thanks.
Lastly, it occurs to me that Peak Oil pessimists will quite possibly view this as confirmation that peak oil is very close if it has not already occurred. This may be true, and heaven help us if it is. But at the very least we now have a President that is on record as strongly supporting alternative fuels - in word, if not necessarily in deed. This is an important moment, and hopefully a tipping point for consumer awareness and acceptance of biodiesel as a viable alternative fuel.
A few biodiesel links:
biodiesel.org
biodieselnow.org
biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x
www.journeytoforever.org
tdiclub.com