Bush Signs “Landmark” Energy Bill

Let me start off this post with my being annoyed.  So I knew this bill was happening.  I go to major US news outlets across the country.  CNN, Chicago Tribune, and so on. I finally find it buried on a page on the LA Time website and where else?  BBC.  Okay - now onto the meat.

Georgie signed this energy bill today.  Let’s take a look under the hood.

• Ban 100-watt incandescent light bulb by 2012 (75, 60, 40 by 2014)
• 35mpg standard on cars by 2020 (wooo…big deal - how about by 2010?)
• Bill estimates to cut CO2 emissions ~9% by 2030 (great.  9% we need a lot more reduction )
• Alternative Energy research will focus on ethanol (see other posts)

So I’m a bit of a pessimist - but yeah - great - they signed this bill…  It’s a start - but come on.  I think it’s too little.  There are too many lobbyist hands in everything that who knows if we’ll ever get to the standards and progress that is happening in Europe.

Look at it this way - in the US, two cars get 40mpg now - the Prius and Civic Hybrid.  In Europe, there are 113 different cars that get 40mpg...and oh yeah - of those 113 cars - nearly 2/3 of them are made by either US manufacturers or companies that have their largest amount of sales in the US…yet we can’t buy them if we wanted to.