Quotable: State of the Union

“Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.”

– George W. Bush, State of the Union address, Jan 31, 2006

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“Not only is the world addicted to cheap oil, but the largest liquor store is in a very dangerous neighborhood.”

“Scientists have concluded that stabilizing the climate will ultimately require reducing global carbon dioxide emissions by 60 to 80 percent [from 1990 levels].”

– Christopher Flavin and Nicholas Lenssen, “Beyond the Petroleum Age: Designing a Solar Economy,” Worldwatch Paper 100, December 1990

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More GWB . . .

Oct 11, 2000, 2nd Gore/Bush presidential debate – Your take on global warming?

“It is an issue that we need to take very seriously.”

2001 – Bush pulls the U.S. out of Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 worldwide agreement to address climate change. (Since 1988, scientists and national leaders across the globe have been seriously discussing energy policy focused on reducing carbon emissions, and the Kyoto treaty set forth concrete guidelines for doing so. Australia was the only other 1st-world nation to reject the treaty.)

“I felt the Kyoto protocol was not realistic. It was not based upon science. The stated mandates in the Kyoto treaty would affect our economy in a negative way.”

(2001 results of Bush’s requested independent investigation into climate change: Does global warming exist? Are humans to blame? Yes! The [American] National Academy of Sciences: “Greenhouse gasses are accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities.”)

GWB quotations from an NPR audio clip Feb 1, 2007.