Political candidates and pundits are talking like the energy crisis is new news, and even O’Reilly rants that the Bush administration has done absolutely nothing about it. They conveniently overlook programs aimed at the development of hydrogen fuel, advanced energy technologies, and renewable fuels.
Click chart to make it bigger
For details, see the DOE summary presentation:
http://www.energy.upenn.edu/docs/EWGP-Milliken-slides.pdf
The cornerstone of the program is the Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI) — which was announced in Bush’s 2006 State of the Union address . The AEI’s stated goals are to reduce our dependence on oil (especially foreign sourced) and to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants).
Specifically, the AEI was tasked with accelerating the technical and cost viability of alternative energy technologies for vehicles (e.g. plug-in hybrid vehicles, fuel cells, and biofuels, including “cellulosic” ethanol derived from agricultural waste, forest residues and dedicated energy crops such as switchgrass), and for homes and businesses (e.g. nuclear power, clean coal, solar, and wind).
An important component of the AEI is critical basic research that should help overcome major technical barriers to the expanded use of technologies such as solar energy, cellulosic ethanol, energy storage, hydrogen fuel cells, and fusion energy.
For details of the AEI:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/energy/energy_booklet.pdf
The initial enacted budget for AEI was $1.77 billion in FY2006; the proposed FY 2009 Budget is $3.17 billion:
http://www.ostp.gov/galleries/Budget09/AdvancedEnergyInitiative1pager.pdf
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Observations
1. Critics argue that the too little, too late, misdirected … with too little emphasis on convervation standards and processes. The critics may be right, but some visibility and credit should be given for getting the ball rolling.
2. The next president will take over with the ball close to the end zone on some of the initiatives. Watch whoever it is punch it in for the touchdown, dance in the end zone, and claim credit for the entire scoring drive.
3. The Bush team may be the worst marketers in the entire free world.
4. Gotta ask: what did Al Gore do in the 8 years he was hanging around the White House? I guess it’s easier to be bold and visionary when you don’t have responsibility …
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Worth browsing: the U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) web site: http://www.eere.energy.gov/
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