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54 comments on KR: Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports

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odograph on February 2, 2006 - 2:38am

I read it as an attempt by the admin's economists to explain the fungibility of oil. It's being taken as "backing off" ... but that might be journos having fun.

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SqueakyRat on February 2, 2006 - 11:54am

Odo --
Yeah, the Energy Sec's point was perfectly correct -- there's no practical way to reduce imports from the Middle East by 75% while keeping everything else the same. And so it's a good thing he pointed this out, though I doubt many people who haven't been paying attention to oil will get the point.

But it's still dishonest for Bush to say this, since it conflates two different problems: oil dependence and the geopolitical misfortune of where we have to get it. It's a very short-sighted way to make a rather modest alternative-energy proposal more palatable to gung-ho SUV-driving jingoists.

By the way, he seems to have stuck to this conflation on the first stop of his most recent road show.

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