Bush readies speech on ethanol, climate change
Swiss news service SwissInfo is reporting Bush readies speech on ethanol, climate change.
U.S. President George W. Bush’s annual speech to Congress next week is likely to call for a massive increase in U.S. ethanol usage and tweak climate change policy while stopping short of mandatory emissions caps, sources familiar with White House plans said on Tuesday.
One source briefed by White House officials said Bush’s speech on January 23 could call for over 60 billion gallons (227 billion litres) a year of ethanol to be mixed into U.S. gasoline supplies by 2030.
The White House on Tuesday confirmed that Bush’s speech will outline a policy on global warming, but said Bush has not dropped his opposition to mandatory limits on heat-trapping greenhouse-gas emissions.
U.S. allies like Britain and Germany have pressed for a new global agreement on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. Bush withdrew the United States from the protocol in 2001, saying its targets for reducing carbon emissions would unfairly hurt the U.S. economy.
Refusing to cap emissions is just stupid. Putting your faith in ethanol is similarly stupid. You can’t exchange land for growing food with land for growing fuel and not cause widespread famine and consequent suffering. Bush’s announcement is likely to be little more than a ‘business-as-usual’ green-wash. — DS
Technorati Tags: biofuel, emissions reduction, ethanol, George W Bush, green power, greenwash, politics, USA
