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THE ADMINISTRATION'S ENERGY POLICY. Last night on Larry King's show, George W. Bush offered the most succinct explanation of his approach to global warming yet:
We have done a lot to deal with greenhouse gases by advancing new technologies. I campaigned against Al Gore. I said we're going to spend money for clean coal technologies and we're in the process of doing that and one of these days people are going to look back and say, well, thank goodness the Bush administration made these investments because we'll be able to have electricity from coal that won't pollute.[...]But we're the ones -- my administration started the hydrogen initiative. Spent over a billion dollars for research in the hopes that we'll be able to power our automobiles by hydrogen, which would be an amazing advance in -- in -- in -- in -- in cleaning the environment. We've done more on ethanol that any administration. We've got a great record and -- but this town is full of politics. People just say what they want to say.So there you have it. Subsidies for the coal industry. Subsidies for Iowa corn farmers. Subsidies for the auto industry. If it looks like corporate welfare, walks like corporate welfare, and quacks like corporate welfare, it's probably not a sound greenhouse gas policy.
--Ezra Klein