No-pain energy plan

PRESIDENT BUSH has been visiting Michigan, Wisconsin, and Colorado this week to extol the benefits of alternative energy sources. His emphasis on independence from foreign oil is welcome, but the rhetoric should not obscure the reality that his comparatively small programs will do little to accomplish his goal.

Bush says he wants to raise spending on researching new technologies for clean energy by 22 percent. An analysis of his 2007 budget by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington paints a different picture. Work on geothermal energy would be eliminated, weatherization assistance programs would be cut, and the total budget request, at $1.76 billion, would barely exceed the appropriation for the current year.

Perhaps Bush means to focus on the technologies highlighted on his trip. Research on turning agricultural products into motor fuel would increase by 65 percent (to $146.6 million) and work on solar energy would rise by 78 percent (to $148.4 million).

Bush's lack of seriousness was shown by the treatment accorded energy researchers at a federal center he toured in Golden, Colo., yesterday. Thirty-two workers were supposed to be fired because of budget cuts, but money was found to keep them on the job in time for his visit.

The research money is dwarfed by the amount of energy used by US consumers. The Energy Department reports 9.06 million barrels of gasoline were consumed in the United States each day in 2004, the latest year for which the figure was available, which at $2.30 a gallon would come to an expenditure of $875 million each day. Short of a miracle breakthrough, Bush's modest research increases are unlikely to change Americans' energy consumption habits.

At a stop in Milwaukee on Monday, President Bush was comparing 1980s technology unfavorably with that available today -- for instance, carbon paper instead of laser printers. But more relevant to energy policy, the 1980s were notable for a gradual decline in the price of oil from a peak in 1981.

Because that drop gave the United States 15 or more years of cheap oil, Americans were lulled into wasteful energy use, only to be shocked by the run-up in prices over the last couple of years. The spike in the early 1980s was caused by instability in the Mideast. The recent increase, prompted by the industrialization of China, looks to be more durable.

It's going to take more than increased research in a few fields to get Americans to reduce their consumption of oil significantly. But Bush will not suggest any major increase in vehicle mileage standards or in gasoline taxes to reduce consumption. Another president will have to match Bush's words with tough new policies to finally wean the nation from its dangerous dependence on foreign oil.