Last week President Bush embarked on a giddy, whirlwind, two-day tour to champion alternative fuels, breezing through three whole states and promoting research and development.
President Bush... headed to the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., on Tuesday to talk about speeding up development of biofuels and other energies that can help reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil."In order to seize this moment, this country has got to be technologically-advanced," Bush said at Milwaukee-based auto-parts supplier Johnson Controls Building Efficiency Business... Bush toured the car-battery factory before traveling to Michigan to visit a solar-power panel factory.
Then lunch at McDonald's, then everybody back on the bus by 1 PM and we visit Big Ben, the Parliament, the Liberty Bell, the Mayan Ruins, the Hollywood Wax Museum, dinner at an old-timey Wild West saloon with dancing girls and back to the Travelodge by 9 PM.
Much like the farmers that shoved all their meager crops along the railway lines to fool Mao Tse Tung into thinking 1958 China wasn't in the throes of a horrible famine, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman scrambled to fund the re-hiring of 32 recently fired workers and researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory so that by the time Bush arrived, everything would just be abuzz with happy activity. The workers were shit-canned because of a $28 million budget shortfall blamed on Congressional earmarks. Damn you, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and your poi-based ethanol!
Bush spoke eagerly about the future of solar power at the plant in Michigan:
"Roof makers will one day be able to make a solar roof that protects you from the elements and at the same time, powers your house," Bush said. "The vision is this -- that technology will become so efficient that you'll become a little power generator in your home, and if you don't use the energy you generate you'll be able to feed it back into the electricity grid."
So those people with solar-powered homes that are completely off the power grid can pay my electric bill? Eat that, Ed Begley Jr.!
The president also focused on a $150 million fund for government and private research into renewable fuels like corn-based ethanol. “We’re coming up with a way to make something out of nothing,” Bush said.
Wow - cars that run on nothing. What a different society that would be. Back door deals with shady monarchs where we get nothing in return; giant corporations bullying our government by providing us with nothing; our president starting wars with third world countries over nothing. Get ready, America! We've got nothing to look forward to in our future!
Bush to Tour Government Alternative Energy Research Lab (Fox News)