I said late yesterday that George W. Bush understands “energy independence” is not possible for the US. It turns out that Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has gone slightly farther than that, and admitted that Bush meant none of what he said about energy in his State of The Empire speech (according to Knight Ridder):
One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America’s dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn’t mean it literally.
What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.
…
“This was purely an example,” Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.
He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth.
Asked why the president used the words “the Middle East” when he didn’t really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that “every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands.” The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble.
Right. Tom, you don’t need to worry that suddenly Rush Limbaugh will go all gooey on hybrids and hate SUVs. El Presidente meant nothing in his speech, and so none of those taking marching orders from GOP central have to worry. Talking points won’t change.
Just like all the other words he utters — especially the ones about “freedom” and “democracy” — what Bush said Tuesday evening was meaningless. Utterly meaningless.
8:19 am on February 2, 2006
