President Bush promotes energy independence, snuggles up to Democrats

Word is President Bush will unveil an “energy independence” initiative to support ethanol and other biofuels — and to show the world that he’s, you know, down with the progressive agenda. (Which would be a lot more convincing if major ethanol investors didn’t include oil giants like BP and Royal Dutch Shell. But we digress.) Alan Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council and a Bush adviser, has seen the light: “I actually think from talking to Democrats they have the same concerns we do. They are concerned about energy, and recognize that we need to accelerate our efforts to cure our addiction to foreign oil.” Nice of the Dems to come around. But as love of biofuels swells in the U.S., some are concerned that new corn-based ethanol processing plants will attract factory dairy farms — which can use a distillery byproduct as cattle feed — that will increase land, air, and water pollution. See, we don’t need the Middle East! We can screw up the country just fine on our own.