When people are given accurate information about the costs of oil dependence, according to the latest survey from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), they make better decisions, like choosing higher vehicle fuel standards that will lead to less oil consumption.
Which is what makes the keynote address by former oil man and former President George W. Bush at the WindPower 2010 conference so troubling. It was filled with deception, misdirection and untruth. The crowd enjoyed and applauded the folksy, funny anecdotal presentation, which means it absorbed the former President’s inaccuracies along with his stories. And, as U.S. Oil Market Fundamentals and Public Opinion (completed just before the Gulf oil castastrophe) shows, when people have inaccurate information they make decisions like “drill, baby, drill.”
Fortunately, Mr. Bush also delivered some entirely accurate and sound messages in his talk. He emphasized that wind energy is one of the ideas that will deliver the nation from its oil addiction. He is certainly to be applauded for having the integrity, as a self-proclaimed son of Texas, to have declared the U.S an oil addict during his presidency and having done what he did for the Texas wind industry in the 1990s.
Yet even in recounting how he, as Governor of Texas, helped make the state into the nation’s wind energy leader, he disappointed. In listing the policies he instituted as Governor in support of wind, there was a glaring omission. He listed first and foremost “good sound law” that allows entrepreneurs to get a “reasonable return” for investment risks. He also called for low taxes, streamlined permitting and expanded access to transmission.
What President Bush omitted was the one thing the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and every other speaker at the convention, including North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Iowa Governor Chet Culver, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, CEOs from major wind companies across the country and around the world and the AWEA CEO Denise Bode, were clamoring for: A national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES).
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