2008 Woodie Awards
Experts Agree That the United States Is Addicted to Oil
Kevin G. Hall
Issue date: 2/6/06 Section: News
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President Bush's pledge to cure America's "addiction to oil" through alternative fuels and new battery technologies is winning praise from energy experts as a good but modest first step.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey champions alternative fuels and fears that U.S. dependence on foreign oil jeopardizes national security. He thinks the president's proposals are moderate and will be met easily. The bigger hurdle, he said, is weaning carmakers off gasoline.
"The most important thing is tax credits. What I would have loved to have seen is a deal with Detroit to go entirely to flex-fuel vehicles," Woolsey said, referring to vehicles that can run on either gasoline or ethanol.
"What you need for this is an Apollo-like project of public-private partnerships ... to achieve the independence," said former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, now governor of New Mexico and a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. "He didn't propose any tax incentives, plus he ignored conservation."
In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Bush set a distant goal of energy independence and promised support for breakthrough technologies such as cellulosic ethanol, an alternative fuel made from plant fibers.
"We're told that if we continue to focus on research, we'll be able to within six years have a competitive fuel to gasoline," Bush told an audience in Tennessee on Wednesday.
The president also vowed to step up research into battery technologies, with the goal of expanding beyond today's popular hybrid vehicles, which get 50 miles per gallon or better. The next-generation electric plug-in hybrids, which Bush said would rely more on electricity than gasoline, are plugged in at night to power up and could get well more than 100 mpg.
"This particular aspect of the State of the Union gives a whole lot of credibility to the concept of electric cars and plug-ins," said Bill Moore, the publisher of a Web site devoted to alternative energy cars, www.evworld.com. Moore called the president's goals attainable but he said they would require sacrifice from consumers in the form of higher gas taxes to discourage consumption or higher mileage standards for new vehicles.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey champions alternative fuels and fears that U.S. dependence on foreign oil jeopardizes national security. He thinks the president's proposals are moderate and will be met easily. The bigger hurdle, he said, is weaning carmakers off gasoline.
"The most important thing is tax credits. What I would have loved to have seen is a deal with Detroit to go entirely to flex-fuel vehicles," Woolsey said, referring to vehicles that can run on either gasoline or ethanol.
"What you need for this is an Apollo-like project of public-private partnerships ... to achieve the independence," said former Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, now governor of New Mexico and a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. "He didn't propose any tax incentives, plus he ignored conservation."
In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Bush set a distant goal of energy independence and promised support for breakthrough technologies such as cellulosic ethanol, an alternative fuel made from plant fibers.
"We're told that if we continue to focus on research, we'll be able to within six years have a competitive fuel to gasoline," Bush told an audience in Tennessee on Wednesday.
The president also vowed to step up research into battery technologies, with the goal of expanding beyond today's popular hybrid vehicles, which get 50 miles per gallon or better. The next-generation electric plug-in hybrids, which Bush said would rely more on electricity than gasoline, are plugged in at night to power up and could get well more than 100 mpg.
"This particular aspect of the State of the Union gives a whole lot of credibility to the concept of electric cars and plug-ins," said Bill Moore, the publisher of a Web site devoted to alternative energy cars, www.evworld.com. Moore called the president's goals attainable but he said they would require sacrifice from consumers in the form of higher gas taxes to discourage consumption or higher mileage standards for new vehicles.