Letter: Bush’s rhetoric lacks substance

Saturday, Feb. 4, 2006 | 12:30 p.m.

President Bush used his latest State of the Union address to rhetorically hijack a progressive platform - including yet another rhetorical call for energy independence.

The president's track record on energy reform shows a consistent failure of reality to match his rhetoric.

It's amazing that the president who helped produce a big oil energy bill, cobbled together in secret meetings with oil lobbyists, is now calling for a crash energy independence program.

While the president may talk the energy independence talk, the reality is that since 2002, the president has allowed energy efficiency research and development spending to decline by 15 percent. And, instead of increasing funding across the board, Bush's 2005 budget request cut core renewable energy and energy efficiency programs - including a 16 percent cut to biomass programs.

Instead of handing out billions in subsidies to older energy industries like oil and gas, America needs a post-Katrina, post-Iraq Apollo energy strategy to replace imported oil and gas with newer, cleaner home grown fuels.

All Americans should scrutinize the president's latest energy reform rhetoric and look to see whether his newest crusade for energy independence is backed by a full tank of gas or - once again - whether George W. Bush is running on empty.

Rodger D. Dickens, Pahrump