Obama Sets Low Energy Targets
March 30, 2011 Leave a comment
We are almost meeting Obama’s goal for oil imports, or close too it.
This feels like a political energy plan for the next presidential campaign (as usual) and not for us or climate change. Until carbon prices really rise, until we start conserving energy in building, until we quit using corn to energize our cars, until we have a good public transportation system, until we have a smart grid to distribute electricity throughout the country, until we have cleaner electricity, then this is just political window dressing.
Iowa farmers should be happy with the ethanol subsidies. (Easy way to get ethanol is to cut the 50 cent tariff on cheap Brazilian ethanol.)
Obama calls for a one-third cut in oil imports by 2025 from 2008 levels of 11.1 million barrels a day. But the EIA reports that net imports for have averaged 9.0 MBD for the first two months of 2011 — and 8.9 MBD over the last 6 months (h/t Oildrum) We only need to hit 7.4 to achieve Obama’s goal!
via Climate Progress.
About Stephen E. McGaughey
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