President Bush addressed a renewable-energy conference in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, repeating earlier declarations that the United States is dependent on oil and that investment in technology will solve the country’s energy problems. “[W]e’ve got to reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels, and replace them with alternative energy sources to power our homes and our work places,” he said. Bush called nuclear power “safe” and “limitless” and praised massive loan guarantees to the nuclear industry as well as legislation shielding new nuke plants from lawsuits. He also briefly mentioned ethanol’s contribution to rising food prices, but said that investing in biofuels research “is the best thing to do” to address the problem. Bush praised select provisions in the 2007 energy bill that raised fuel-economy standards and ethanol targets, but left out the part where he pressured Congress to drop the renewable-electricity standard and renewable-energy tax credits from the bill. “I hope when history is written of this administration, we not only talked, we actually did positive things and constructive things.” Well, keep hoping.
