It makes so much sense

I missed Bush’s speech tonite, but from what I’m reading, the leader from the free world is being informed by people who have never taken a high-school science course.

Mike O’Hare of the Berkley Goldman School of Public Policy wrote a summary/criticism of Bush’s speech that sums up the nation’s energy options (and the president’s distorted view of them) nearly perfectly.

Bush deserves credit for highlighting energy conservation, at least in general terms. But it would have been a lot more useful if he had proposed to stop giving big SUVs and pickups a pass on fuel efficiency, and if he had asked whether we need to have such enormous houses, built so far apart that people have to drive thousands of miles a year because walking, bicycles, and public transportation are impractical. It would have been especially useful if he hadn’t asked for those lower gas prices. (Does the man know which way demand curves slope?).

Bush also brought up nuclear power (our best long term solution in my opinion), but he failed to address any of the political obstacles preventing its mainstream use.

It may not have been because the President wasn’t making any sense, but NBC, Fox and CBS all cut the President’s speech short to return to regularly scheduled programming (including Survivor and The Apprentice).

Wow! It’s just frustrating to hear that this is all the most powerful people in the world can come up with. It’s not acceptable.

Mark A.R. Kleiman blog post