(The idea for the photo was taken from last night’s episode of Real Time With Bill Maher).

Cross posted at Firegodlake

Today is Earth Day and what a better way for Bush to celebrate it then by trying to exploit it. He did so in his weekly radio address:

Saturday is Earth Day, and many of you are asking how we can meet our growing energy needs while protecting our environment. The key is technology. So I have proposed the Advanced Energy Initiative to change the way we power our homes, businesses, and cars. I will visit the California Fuel Cell Partnership to take a closer look at hydrogen fuel cells, one of the exciting new technologies supported by my initiative. These fuel cells have the potential to revolutionize the way we power our cars by giving us vehicles that will emit no pollution and will be more efficient than gas-powered cars.

My Advanced Energy Initiative will also help improve hybrid vehicles — cars and trucks that run partly on electricity and help drivers save gas. We’re funding research into a new generation of plug-in hybrid vehicles that could be recharged in electrical outlets and could allow many drivers to make their daily commute using no gasoline.

By developing these and other new sources of clean renewable energy like ethanol, we will continue growing our economy, reduce energy prices and protect our environment, and make America less dependent on foreign oil.

This is politicking at its worst. The Republicans have always had a great way of playing with words to make something sound like that it isn’t. “No Child Left Behind” as a way to keep the majority of students from obtaining higher education. “Clear Skies Initiative” meaning the best way to clear the skies is by killing all the birds that fly in them using pollution.. These are just a couple of examples and  “Advanced Energy Initiative” is no different.

The problem is we are letting the oil companies mold our energy policies. There is no better way to insure high profits then by allowing that. Gas is over $3.00 a gallon in most of the country and topping $4.00 in some regions. All this is happening at the same time we find out one of the biggest oil executives (or Fat Bastard) is retiring with a $400 million package. Something is wrong there.

In order to move America forward on the alternative energy agenda, some changes need to be made to the current agenda. Oil prices must be fixed. Government needs to step in and get the oil prices down then add some extra tax to the prices in order to help fund this research.

Legislation must be written in such a way that any new money generated off of fuel taxes goes towards alternative energy research only. Sadly we can not trust the Republicans to protect these funds like this. If they did take the initiative to start a program like this then that money will quickly be scattered into defense and other areas and the research for alternative fuels will still suffer.

While on the subject of high oil prices, something else has really ticked me off. When the oil prices surge so do the emails about oil prices. Here is the common one and I have received three of them already this week:

Gas Prices vs ?

People have been complaining about the rising price of gasoline recently, but I have always thought that gas was a good value (especially if you were to take the $0.30, $0.40 per gallon tax off at the pump)! Obviously others need a little convincing. So the article in this week’s “Autoweek” magazine brought it all to light. What if you were to buy a gallon of . . .

 

1. – Diet Snapple 16 oz for $1.29 = $10.32 per gallon

    

2. – Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz for $1.19 = $9.52 per gallon

    

3. – Gatorade 20 oz for $1.59 = $10.17 per gallon

    

4. – Ocean Spray 16 oz for $1.25 = $10.00 per gallon

    

5. – Quart of Milk 16 oz for $1.59 = $6.32 per gallon

    

6. – Evian (water) 9 oz for $1.49 = $21.19 per gallon

    

7. – STP Brake Fluid 12 oz for $3.15 = $33.60 per gallon

    

8. – Vicks Nyquil 6 oz for $8.35 = $178.13 per gallon

    

9. – Pepto Bismol 4 oz for $3.85 = $123.20 per gallon

    

10. – Whiteout 7 oz for $1.39 = $254.17 per gallon

     

11. – Scope 1.5 oz for $0.99 = $84.84 per gallon

     

So next time you’re at the pump, be glad your car doesn’t run on Nyquil or Scope or Whiteout!

Now looking through that list, what do all those items have in common? They all take oil to produce and distribute. They are also not items required to survive in today’s oil economy.

Some people have said these high oil prices are the perfect way to help out the environment. I am a strong environmentalist and I could not disagree more. If anything these prices will have a negative effect on the environment.

Oil prices continue to skyrocket but consumption is remaining the same. The ones who feel the strongest pinch from these outrageous prices at the pump are the lower and middle class Americans. What skyrocketing oil prices will do is create an even larger population of Americans in poverty.

The Americans who are better off financially will still fill up their SUVs and drive the kids to soccer practice while sitting in the car running the AC. That is not going to change. The only difference is some might end up putting more fuel ups on their credit cards.

While these people are helping to insure lucrative retirement packages for oil executives, the people who suffer will watch as their towns turn into ghettos. This means that pollution will rise as people no longer care anymore. They are now more worried about how to get enough gas to get to their job at Wal-Mart.

We need a strong energy policy in this country that takes care of the environment and of Americans. Right now we are throwing away valuable dollars so oil companies can have record profits. This is a danger. People like George Bush are not going to work to make changes on the current policy. George Bush is part of the oil industry and he sure as hell won’t bite the hand that feeds him.

We need to make sure that people are not snowballed by Bush’s latest propaganda of “Advanced Energy Initiative”. It is not helping to fund alternative fuels. It is another one of his smoke screens to try and say “he cares” when in fact he doesn’t. If he did care then he would have told Cheney to pack his bags after Cheney held his little closed door meeting with oil executives right after taking office.