The entire Bush speech that introduced Clear Skies is so full of lies, manipulations, disinformation, and blatantly false promises that it would require a book to address each statement. In this series, I have selected 16 statements from the text of the speech and divided them into what I consider the Initiative's five main issues: conservation (lack of), environmental health (devastation of), freemarket solutions (failure of), science (absence of), coal (dominance of), and nuclear energy (state sponsored terrorism).

Bush Clear Skies speech quotes in bold italic.

"We'll devote $588 million towards the research and development of energy conservation technologies. We must and we will conserve more in the United States. And we will spend $408 million toward research and development on renewables, on renewable energy."

If Bush were seriously interested in energy conservation, the first thing he would have done was to demand a dramatic increase in fuel efficiency. The largest single chunks of our gas and oil go into automobiles. Yet the Bush IRS has retained a massive tax credit for gas-guzzling SUVs (up to $75,000) and has made no provisions for fuel efficience, which is now at its lowest in 22 years. In 2001, Bush killed the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, which had yielded prototype vehicles that get 70 mpg and replaced it with the Freedom CAR initiative, a $1.7-billion giveaway to the Big Three Automakers (GM, Daimler-Chrysler and Ford) for developing a hydrogen vehicle that has a 10-year time window and does not require that an actual hydrogen-powered car be produced! Its companion program, Freedom Fuel, dedicates $1.2 billion to "researching the technology and cost-competitivenss" of hydrogen fuel - yet does not require that any actual hydrogen technology be developed.

In any case, the $996 million toward conservation and renwables is a pitiful drop in a holey bucket Compared to the tens of billions Bush's plan allots to fossil fuel industry just in "incentives" to do nothing. In fact, the entire $588 million budget for energy conservation R&D is about $180 million LESS than what the Progress Coal company made just in tax breaks for spraying coal with pine resin or diesel to create phony, highly polluting "synfuel" in the past 7 years. And the entire $996 million is probably less than what Progress will make from its synfuel scam bucks in the next five years (see "The), thanks to Bush's sanctioning of the scam.

The fact is, Bush doesn't give a damn about conservation or renewables. In January 2001 when he seized office, he had immediate access to a recently completed, extensive report by DOE researchers that showed that energy efficiency and renewable power could cover 60% of the national need for new electric power plants over the next 20 years, while dramatically reducing air pollution. But in the 2002 DOE budget, funding for renewable energy R&D was cut 37.2% from previous levels, while energy conservation was cut by 22.8% . In contrast, the ineffective to downright fraudulent Clean Coal Technology Initiative gets an 800% boost!

What Bush has failed to tell the public, in his effort to shove through the unneeded 1,300-plus power plants, is that conservation efforts already put into the pipeline in the past several years will, within the next few years, dramatically reduce energy needs.

For example, efficiency standards for clothes washers, water heaters, and air conditioners, passed by Clinton, and agreed to by the Bush administration, will reduce annual energy needs by the equivalent of that put out by 127 power plants. In addition, overhauls at existing plants that have been in the works for a while have, since 2002, upped national power output by the equivalent of 300 power plants. That's 427 plants right there that aren't needed. According to a study by the Alliance to Save Energy, a few very modest steps in the areas of conservation and renewables could reduce the need for new plants to just 170 - without polluting the air.

As to renewable energy development, Bush's pledge of $1.2 billion to fuel cell research is a sham. Only $720 million of this amount is in fact new money added to what has already been planned for fuel cell research. And, this is not $1.2 billion a year -- it is $1.2 billion to be spread out over five years. His FreedomCar and Freedom Fuel schemes are even more bogus. The FreedomCAR initiative is a handout to the Big Three automakers for them to produce a concept for a hydrogen car years and years down the line- they aren't even required to turn out a real prototype. And the Freedom Fuel plan, touted as planning for a hydrogen-based infrastructure, is nothing more than an overpriced 10-year study that, like the FreedomCAR initiative, isn't required to produce anything tangible. In short, Bush's renewable fuel programs are little more than high-priced smoke and mirrors.

Solar and wind fare even worse. Bush said sure, he'd allot $1 billion for development of those renewable energy sources. But, and here's the sicko catch: the money has to come from profits from oil pumping operations in ANWR!

Bush is spending "$40 million under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act to help countries redirect debt payments towards protecting tropical forests, forests that store millions of tons of carbon" and "$25 million for climate observation systems in developing countries that will help scientists understand the dynamics of climate change."

These projects are basically do-nothing money shuffling efforts that are totally meaningless. Meanwhile, the relocation of scores of American industries to third world nations is dramatically increasing many kinds of pollution. Why? A major reason these plants move to other countries is to avoid having to adhere to pollution standards imposed in the US. Examples: clustering of US-relocated plants near the Mexico-California border caused the air in Imperial County in 2000 to be rated as among the "dirtiest" in the US. Meanwhile, to push coal, US companies are building filthy megacoal plants overseas in environmentally sensitive areas. Edison International is fighting to site two huge coal plants in the Gulf of Thailand (the Bo Nok plants) over the vehement objections of the local residents. These two plants alone will create enough new pollution to wipe out any tiny gain in carbon sequestration bought by Bush's pitiful contribution.

How Energy Efficiency Can Turn 1,300 Power Plants into 170 http://www.ase.org/media/factsheets/facts1300.htm

Edison: OUT of Bo Nok www.cleanenergynow.org/pdfdocs/edison_out_report.pdf

Trade and the Environment http://www.ustdrc.gov/hearings/29oct99/dseligman.pdf

Pollution in Imperial Valley http://www.earthjustice.org/urgent/display.html?ID=92

http://www.earthjustice.org/news/display.html?ID=696

Chemical & Engeineering News April 23, page 39 Bush Ties Solar Power to Drilling http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/Solar-Power-Drilling-Tied.htm

Great Energy Scam http://www.talkabouttaxes.com/group/misc.taxes/messages/208004.html

Bush Fuel Cell scheme http://www.planetsave.com/ViewStory.asp?ID=3598