UCS is paying attention

The Union of Concerned Scientists is paying attention to oil dependency and the administration's continual cutting of funding, incentives, etc. Please check them out and support their calls to action!


I cut and pasted the relevant excerpt, but for the full analysis of the proposed budget bill on many issues:
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/positions/presi...-budget.html#CV
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“Oil addiction†and budgetary realities
While we applaud President Bush's call to reduce U.S. oil dependence, the proposed budget will do virtually nothing to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. There are no incentives in the proposed budget for improving the fuel economy of today's cars and trucks. This is the best way to reduce oil dependence over the next 20 years. The relatively small increase in research dollars for hybrid technology ($6.7 million according to the White House) is positive, but is paltry in comparison with the size of the problem—the United States sends more than that overseas to pay for oil every 15 minutes.

Conventional & Advanced Passenger Vehicle Technologies
U.S. taxpayers have already made significant investments in improving conventional and hybrid vehicle technology. However, since the government has not pushed the industry, either through regulation or tax incentives, to create a more efficient fleet, the technology is increasingly being used by manufacturers to boost the power and performance of vehicles and not to reduce oil usage. This budget continues to make that mistake as there are budget cuts for conventional fuel-saving technologies and no incentives for their integration into automakers' fleets.

The small increase for hybrid technology research comes at the expense of other oil-saving technologies in the Vehicle Technologies program. This program is cut by $17 million to $166 million, a 9 percent cut. The increases for hydrogen research (up 26 percent or $41 million to $196 million) and biomass and biofuels research (up 65 percent or $65 million to $120 million) are also good steps. However, they are long-term research projects and there is no guarantee that the technology will be used to reduce emissions and oil use. The government needs to provide an effective suite of better incentives and stronger standards to ensure that research dollars will result in real progress.

Diesel Emissions Reduction
The enactment of both the National Clean School Bus Grant Program and the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) last year led to a significant increase in the administration’s budget request for diesel cleanup ($49.5 million). These funds will be dedicated to retrofitting and replacing school buses (funded last year at seven million dollars) as well as retrofitting construction equipment, locomotives, and other diesel equipment. Unfortunately, the administration cut $35 million from a fund for state and local air quality agencies, whose programs are essential to meeting clean air standards. In order for the goals of both DERA and the Clean School Bus Grant Program to be met, state and local air quality agencies need to be fully funded.