The Bush administration engaged in a bit of greenspeak yesterday, revealing that Vice President Dick Cheney’s secretive energy task force would recommend tax credits for consumers who purchase gas-electric hybrid cars. It also said it would encourage burning biomass to produce energy. But for the most part, as Cheney himself made clear on CNN yesterday, the plan will stress ways to expand the supply of fossil fuel and the number of power plants in the country. Cheney said California’s blackouts had come about because the state had been “relying only on conservation.” In response, California Gov. Gray Davis (D) issued a statement calling Cheney “grossly misinformed.” Meanwhile, in the face of rising gas prices, White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said this week that President Bush would not urge Americans to conserve: “That’s a big no. The president believes that it’s an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy-makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one.”
