President Bush yesterday tried to deflect questions about his environmental record by claiming that he supports efforts to reduce America's fossil fuel usage (1). He said he had "introduced ideas like a hydrogen-powered automobile, put money behind it and research behind it" so that so that we will be "less dependent on foreign sources of energy" and we will "improve the environment." But Bush's hydrogen-automobile proposal is purposely engineered to be fossil fuel dependent, and it is paid for by taking money out of programs that are actually reducing fossil fuel use.

As Mother Jones reported, "the Bush Administration has been working quietly to ensure that the system used to produce hydrogen will be as fossil fuel-dependent - and potentially as dirty - as the one that fuels today's SUVs. According to the administration's National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, drafted last year in concert with the energy industry, up to 90% of all hydrogen will be refined from oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels" (2). Such a system, experts say, would effectively eliminate most of the benefits offered by hydrogen because the Bush plan's use of oil/coal/gas to create fuel cells would generate large amounts of pollution. Not surprisingly, such a system would insure the massive profits of the energy industry, which bankrolls Bush's campaign (3).

Bush is, in part, paying for this fossil-fuel-based program by stripping funding from programs that are actually reducing fossil fuel use in America. As AP reported, Bush moved money into his hydrogen program at the same time he "ended an eight-year program to help automakers develop high-mileage, family size cars" such as the successful hybrids now beginning to permeate the U.S. market (4). Additionally, Bush proposed reducing "federal funding for renewable energy and efficiency research program by more than $200 million in 2002" (5).

Sources: 1. President Bush Touts Benefits of Health Care Information Technology, 04/27/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=31607.
2. "Hydrogen's Dirty Secret", Mother Jones, May/June 2003, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=31608.
3. OpenSecrets.Org, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=31609.
4. "Bush abandons high-mileage car program for hydrogen fuel-cell approach", Environmental News Network, 01/10/2002, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=31610.
5. "Proposed Bush Budget Cuts Renewables and Energy Efficiency Programs", Resources for the Future, 04/11/2001, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1208987&l=31611.

Topplebush.com
Posted: May 2, 2004