Video: President Bush signs the Energy Bill into law
President Bush signed the Energy Bill into law Wednesday and you can watch highlights from the speech in the video above. In the speech, President Bush noted two important parts of the energy bill; the biofuels and CAFE standard, both of which Bush says he asked for last year. Bush appreciates Congress gave him what he wanted for Christmas, but what about everyone else?
According to the NewsHour, there were four big issues in the early version of the energy bill along with the CAFE increase and the biofuel standard: proposed laws to increase renewable energy used by power companies and an increase in oil company taxes. Only CAFE and biofuels made it into the final bill. So, you could really call the bill that passed the Green Auto Bill because the only substantial things in the energy bill are laws related to cars and fuels.
AutoblogGreen covered the automotive aspects of the energy bill for months and after seeing everything we covered pass and everything else not pass, I feel kinda bad for the rest of the energy bill. With $90-a-barrel oil and gas prices sure to go up next year, I guess Congress and the president could not let this one fail; now they can say they were doing something about the increase in gas prices.
Below the fold is a photo of the Energy Bill's Congressional signing ceremony.
[Source: White House, NewsHour]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mort 8:19PM (12/20/2007)
They should call it the oil bill, they stripped every green energy provision we had. Bush and congreffs are a bunch of dirty scum bags.
Reply
Murc 10:10PM (12/20/2007)
Mort - lay off the crack pipe.
You should be happy he passed it.
with its passing will come more efficient cars.....thats a good thing.
Reply
Mort 10:29PM (12/20/2007)
Give me a break Murc, the efficiency standards are the most cynical and porous piece of legislation to come down the pike. It will do nothing. Bush is an inbred psycho.
Reply
Joseph 12:33AM (12/21/2007)
:)
Maybe now we'll have a variety of ultra-high mpg (60+) hybrids and diesels in our future, like perhaps the CRZ concept. And maybe more alternative fuel cars like EVs and availability of biomass ethanol and the such.
The future looks very, very bright for green cars.
Reply
Kendall Tawes 12:57AM (12/21/2007)
While I am hopeful for a future where fuel efficiency in this country is even 3/4's of the way to the current European average I think it's ridiculous that it will take 20 years to get there. If they replaced half of their current line up to diesel it would already meet this standard with minimal restructuring costs.
I'm sorry but a lame law like this will do little to help our situation, and while it's better than nothing it's also practically nothing. After all shouldn't we be more in to alternative fuels by 2028?
Reply
Kendall Tawes 1:04AM (12/21/2007)
Sorry typo I meant 2020. However I think my point is still valid however bad my typing can be at times.
Reply
OhmExcited 2:38AM (12/21/2007)
War on oil. Go get em, Dub.
Reply
Ev2g 8:39AM (12/21/2007)
Good for ElectroEnergy...very good for a123....
EXCELLENT for ALTAIRNANO (Alti)
EvCheck
Reply
Mike Z 8:58AM (12/21/2007)
First, Unless you're in favor of repealing Tier II Bin 5, diesels are not being to make up 50% of our fleet for a very long time. (Until someone figures out cheaper emissions technology).
Second, The energy bill does nothing to promote EVs or PHEVs, it give automakers no credit for them.
Reply
Guenther 11:41AM (12/21/2007)
great Idea- repeal T2B5 !!!! I'm all for it, as it really slammed the door on a lot of fuel efficient options for us.
Murc & Mort- you guys need a talkshow. Sorry- names are not funny by themselves, but have a ring to them when you reply to each other.
Mort- who wrote the legislation? It wasn't GW. If congress writes better bills, he can sign better laws.
Reply
John 12:36PM (12/21/2007)
What year did Clinton sign an increased CAFE standard into law?
Reply
jcwinnie 12:50PM (12/21/2007)
LL, at least Mom and Dad are being consistent...
"No, you cannot have a future."
To Mort and Murc, the Sunshine Boys already has been used as a title, how about the Peeved Boyz (PV, Photo Voltaic, ah, never mind)
Reply
steven 1:17PM (12/21/2007)
@11: You may want to check your Constitution or go look at those School House Rock videos again. It seems you need a bit of a review on how a bill becomes a law. It's like asking why none of Jimmy Carter's Supreme Court nominees made it through their confirmation hearings.
On a lighter note... here's some bedtime reading for the rest of us:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-6
Reply
Dad 8:35PM (12/21/2007)
"now they can say they were doing something about the increase in gas prices."
Well, holier than though, aren't we?
Reply
Dad 8:35PM (12/21/2007)
"11. What year did Clinton sign an increased CAFE standard into law?"
Answer: Never. Clinton did nothing for the environment except for dollar a gallon gas and gas guzzling SUVs. Makes me proud to be a Democrat fan boy.
Reply