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© 2005 Maher Osseiran |
Note
to Bloggers: if you wish to help, click
here. W, The Child Left Behind! Comments on Bush's press conference by Maher Osseiran. An attempt to make sense out of nonsense and an simple example of what a known 300 billion dollars can do. Published 29th Apr 2005. Tonight we
listened to a stuttering president who looked so alone behind the podium
that I almost felt sorry for him. I don’t know who
advised him to stand in front of a press, even though malleable, and pitch
the programs responsible for his lowest ratings. I guess someone
thought they could capitalize on the formation of the new Iraqi government
but that did not fly, there is a numbness when it comes to Iraq, we have
over and over heard the good news that never materialized not even as a
glimmer as the end of the tunnel. I guess someone
else told him that the American people needed a scary talk about social
security right before bedtime and by morning the whole country would be
abuzz with calls for rescue. But he sounded unconvincing betrayed by a
non-descript smirk. Please don’t blame him for that failure; he probably
needed a 9/11 like disaster to help him put the blind on the eyes of
future retirees. Another brilliant
adviser put the issue of the high price of gasoline on the agenda thinking
that would help give traction to his new energy policy. The president gave
us a list of components that made up his energy policy which included
nukear, liquefied natural gas and new receiving terminals, and of course,
drilling in ANWAR where he only needed 2000 square miles out of millions
trying to convince us of his environmental concerns. None of these options
would have the slightest effect on gasoline or energy prices in 5 years he
admitted and spared our intelligence. One seemingly
bright idea he had to reduce gasoline prices is to ask producing nations
to pump any excess capacity they have. The only country that has capacity
is Saudi Arabia and that capacity is in the form of high sulfur oil that
is unusable by American refineries. The other reason producing countries
are unwilling to over pump their wells is because it is detrimental to the
geology of the well and significantly reduces the reserves that could be
pumped out in the future. We all know that Shell had to revise its
reserves down and lost market value because of this phenomenon. These
issues are well known to the energy traders and will not effect their
outlook which is higher oil prices. The other bright idea is to ask India and China to be more efficient while failing to preach efficiency in the United States the most inefficient consumer of energy and the largest market for SUV’s. Are the Indians and Chinese going to listen to hypocrisy? The biggest
failure of the president’s press conference was his failure to mention
solar energy. The failure to mention it, even as lip service, casts a long
Cheney shadow over his proposals. I have decided to
give the president and example in a simple arithmetic form in the hope
that one of his scholarly advisers can explain it to him. I am going to
start with a dollar figure everyone should be familiar with, including
him, it is the 300 billion dollars thing; the cost of the Iraq war, and
see what that could have done if it was part of an energy policy and how
quickly would it benefit the country. Each home costs
about $20,000 to completely electrify with photovoltaic cells which means
300 billion dollars would electrify 15 million homes in an outright grant
program, which is unlikely. If we subsidize at 33%, which is more likely,
the number of homes goes up to 45 million and a solar system remains very
attractive, competitive, and within the financial means of most Americans. If each home uses
150 gallons worth of energy a month, that means about 270 million barrels
of oil a month are saved; now that might put a dent in the price of
gasoline. What else would it
do? It would create a construction boom, at least within a couple of
segments in the construction industry. It would generate jobs, put taxes
back into the treasury, reduce emissions and smog, and give the American
people a taste of what energy independency really means. How quickly would
this start showing up as a benefit to the country? Benefits will show up
within 3 months from enacting a solar legislation; not the 5 years that
the other programs take. Also, a solar energy program is forward looking
while the other programs he is presenting are old ideas that we should
really stay away from. Does president
Bush want the independency bug to bite us or does he want us to remain
dependent on Cheney’s ideas patched together behind closed doors. The taste of
independency is different from the feeling some get from conservation.
Conservation reminds us of the unpleasant days of the early seventies and
is usually done either out of necessity or by the few who are viewed as
weird by the rest of the population. The taste of independency is
different, it is euphoric, it is part of human nature, and is what
everyone looks for. That bug should never bite and as long as we have Bush and Cheney, they will make sure that it is repelled from any of their policies. Before you exit this site, things you can do to support us: 1. Sign the petition at the
top of this page. © 2005 Maher Osseiran |
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