Results tagged “Bush” from Green Mesh

I went to see the movie "W" last night. Whether you love or hate George W. Bush, it's an interesting movie that digs into G.W. as a human being and not our usual view from the press release or a suited podium puppet.

The movie is fresh with a blend of recent history, so news junkies like myself can melt their own experience and research with the depiction of the producer.

I tried to gauge the crowd. They were all older. I tired to gauge the reaction. It was neutral.

I thought I might feel anger, but I only felt pity and a bond in that we are all products of our parents, experiences and people's expectations; objectivity is sometimes the ability to see past these.

During the movie there was a passing mention (jab) at Jimmy Carter's White House solar panels.

During the 1970's, Carter was dealing with the effects of an Arab oil crisis and was seeking ways to wean us from foreign oil. Carter had some success in reducing the U.S. dependency on foreign oil.

Carter lost re-election to Ronald Reagan in 1980. The solar panels eventually came down in 1986 and the solar research program was gutted by the Reagan administration. Those same solar panels were in operation at Unity College in Unity, Maine for 12 more years.

The college drove an old school bus down to drove Franconia, VA, to liberate them from a General Services Administration warehouse.

They placed 16 of them on their cafeteria roof in 1992, and used them to provide hot water for 12 years. unity.edu A few were used in experiments by students.

Solar energy returned to the White House in 2002 with a grid of 167 solar panels on the roof of a maintenance shed that has been delivering electricity to the White House grounds. Another solar installation has been helping to provide hot water. Yet another has been heating the water in the presidential pool. nytimes.com

I had never heard that the White House currently had solar power until I did some research here. It appears that it was publicized more by the solar industry than the president.

How cool would it be if the White House was a "shining city upon a hill" to the world. A visible symbol of independent energy.

John Winthrop, a pilgrim who arrived in a rickety wooden boat, coined the phrase when he described the America he imagined (reaganlibrary.com); a home that would be free from the restraints of the world he had known.

The House voted today 236-189 to allow oil drilling off the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts if states agree -- but only 50 or more miles out.

The bill rolls back $18 billion in oil industry tax breaks and imposes new oil and gas royalties, while giving tax incentives for wind and solar industries and for conservation. (AP)

President Bush vetoed the bill saying "its a waste of time" and opponents argue that 50 miles is beyond where most of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil is located.

Republicans who recently shouted "Drill Baby Drill" at their national convention hate the bill and the Democrats say drilling needs to be part of a comprehensive alternative plan.

The Republican's believe that the bill is an election year gimmick against the will of the people which is to lower gas prices.

Fifteen Republicans crossed the aisle to support the bill Tuesday. Thirteen Democrats voted against it.

Since we really don't control the the world oil market, of which the rest of the world has the majority of the oil and the oil we drill in the future will just flow on the world market.
Domestic drilling + OPEC = no impact (greenmesh 9/08)

As the United States feeds a global economy with outsourcing and imports the demand for global oil will just increase far greater than anything we can drill.

Even if we drill tomorrow it will take years before oil hits the world market.

The drilling initiative is almost pointless in the long or short-term, though it squeaks out a tiny addition to the world oil supply beyond the next decade.

The alternative is to...find an alternative? I don't get the problem with the bill.

The Harley-Davidson Softtail Deluxe President Bush was revving this past Wednesday at the Harley-Davidson plant in Springettsbury Township probably gets about 42-50 mpg. (2006 figure) with it's 1584 cc twin-V air-cooled engine. The Harley-Davidson site doesn't list mileage for a 2007 model yet.