DID YOU EVER THINK ABOUT HOW BUSH'S ENERGY "POLICY" WOULD IMPACT YOUR LIFE?

Sunday afternoons the L.A. Air America affiliate has a travel show they run. It's not especially liberal; it's just about travel. But the host interviewed some representative from the multibillion dollar recreational vehicle industry who babbled on about what a great bargain-- even with soaring gas prices-- RV vacations are. Two things caught my attention in the piece, one was how the industry rep talked about technological developments to get better mileage from the behemoths RVs have become, mostly by using lighter materials. And the other attention-grabber was in the intro, when it was explained that since Bush occupied the White House, sales of recreational boats under $40,000 have gone down while sales of expensive (over $40,000) yachts have gone up. Just another way of putting the old adage about the rich getting richer and the poor... well, you know.

So I was interested in the Washington Post story today about how the U.S. auto industry has failed-- in fact, failed absymally-- to get greater fuel efficiency into their cars. I don't know about you, but it costs me over $50 to fill up my car-- and I've stopped using Premium. Gas prices in L.A. are around $3.40 a gallon... and rising. But when I tried to buy a hybrid there were two impediments: a 6-12 week waiting list and a $2,000 bribe you had to pay the dealer for the favor of being allowed to buy the car.

According to the EPA, "Automakers have made no progress in improving vehicle fuel economy over the past year, continuing a nearly 25-year trend of industry stagnation on gasoline mileage. In an annual report released yesterday, the EPA said the industry-wide fuel economy of 2006 model-year vehicles was 21 miles per gallon, the same as the year-ago level. Detroit automakers trailed their fast-growing Japanese, Korean and European counterparts, the report found." And according to Public Citizen, Federal fuel efficiency standards have not been improved since 1989. In fact, since Bush and his rubber stampers-- HUGE recipients of Auto and Big Oil legal bribes-- have taken over, Congress has prohibited the Department of Transportation from even studying the issue!

Bush's rubber stamp Congress-- or should we call it Big Business' rubber stamp Congress; same thing, exactly the same thing-- has violently rejected attempts from Democrats to pass legislation to increase U.S. fuel-economy rules (CAFE standards).

Bush and Cheney-- while denying they were invading Iraq to get their hands on that country's oil-- claimed, 4 years ago-- that the Iraq war would increase oil supplies and lower prices. Didn't quite work out that way, did it? Instead, the big oil companies that have bankrolled Bush's and Cheney's and the Republican Congress' political careers, have made obscene profits and the Arab ruling classes who bankrolled bin Laden have seen a massive transference of wealth from American consumers to themselves. Heckuva job, Bushie!