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SOTU: Carl Pope proves his brilliance by saying something I said

Earlier this week, I argued that it is significant that Bush used the phrase "America is addicted to oil," even in light of the pathetic inadequacy of his proposed solution.

Today, Carl Pope, who's clearly following my lead (cough), argues the same:

On energy policy and global warming, as pollster Frank Luntz has repeatedly told the Administration, the public will demand action once it gets the facts. His counsel, consistently, has been to frame energy and global warming as complex, long-range, controversial, scientifically unresolved issues. Millions, perhaps billions, of dollars have been invested by the carbon lobby into driving these messages home to the public. Now, with a single phrase, President Bush has opened a tear in that fabric of denial. Instead of saying, "Oh, he doesn't really mean it. He's insincere," we ought to be rushing to convert that tear into a rent and to drive home a single fact to the American people:

If our President states that our energy policy amounts to a dangerous addiction to oil, we need to take action now. We need to figure out how to beat this addiction today. Because although the Bush administration's solutions are weak, distant, and ineffective, ours are imminent, rapid, and powerful. The President has given us the best grounds we could imagine for immediately mobilizing our nation behind smart solutions to our energy, global-warming, and oil-addiction challenges. We should forget about him for the moment and start talking about the task at hand, as if it were today's problem -- not tomorrow's -- because it is.

Exactly. This is a golden opportunity -- not to bash Bush, but to take him at face value.

SOTU: The Dean of Shrill responds

Ah, The Mustache is not the only NYT columnist to take on Bush's energy plan today. Unlike Friedman, Paul Krugman, the Dean of Shrill, does not temper his comments:

There is a common theme underlying the botched reconstruction of Iraq, the botched response to Katrina (which Mr. Bush never mentioned), the botched drug program and the nonexistent energy program.

John DiIulio, the former White House head of faith-based policy, explained it more than three years ago. He told the reporter Ron Suskind how this administration operates: "There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. ... I heard many, many staff discussions but not three meaningful, substantive policy discussions. There were no actual policy white papers on domestic issues."

In other words, this administration is all politics and no policy. It knows how to attain power, but has no idea how to govern. That is why the administration was caught unaware when Katrina hit, and why it was totally unprepared for the predictable problems with its drug plan. It is why Mr. Bush announced an energy plan with no substance behind it. And it is why the state of the union -- the thing itself and not the speech -- is so grim.

Feel the shrill!

Not so much

Speaking of evangelical Christianity and environmentalism: In this midst of this unspeakably horrific story about Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), the Congressional champion of evangelicals, comes this revealing passage:

Brownback is less concerned about the world being polluted by people. His biggest financial backer is Koch Industries, an oil company that ranks among America's largest privately held companies. "The Koch folks," as they're known around the senator's office, are among the nation's worst polluters. In 2000, the company was slapped with the largest environmental civil penalty in U.S. history for illegally discharging 3 million gallons of crude oil in six states. That same year Koch was indicted for lying about its emissions of benzene, a chemical linked to leukemia, and dodged criminal charges in return for a $20 million settlement. Brownback has received nearly $100,000 from Koch and its employees, and during his neck-and-neck race in 1996, a mysterious shell company called Triad Management provided $410,000 for last-minute advertising on Brownback's behalf. A Senate investigative committee later determined that the money came from the two brothers who run Koch Industries.

Brownback has been a staunch opponent of environmental regulations that Koch finds annoying, fighting fuel-efficiency standards and the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Whatever substance there is in the alleged growth of "creation care," it doesn't seem to have reached the upper levels of the evangelical movement -- the people who, you know, have power.

SOTU: The Mustache responds

Today Thomas Friedman does what he excels at: points out the obvious.

So here's my bottom line: I'm glad the president is changing his rhetoric on energy and says he is changing his funding priorities. It makes for a great headline. But he has to go much further if he wants to make a great difference. There's no pain-free solution.

But here's the best part:

And if he fails to carry through with this energy initiative, I'll be the first to rip him for it. In the meantime, I prefer to give him a new reputation to live up to. You never know. ... And by the way, pal, you got a better horse to ride right now?

I leave you with the image of Friedman ripping and riding Bush. You can thank me later.

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Competing in new global markets … or not

A German company, SolarWorld, just became the largest manufacturer of solar-power equipment in the U.S.

And this despite Bush's Advanced Energy Initiative and his American Competitiveness Initiative! Didn't anyone tell SolarWorld about our initiatives?

Whitman’s behavior after 9/11: ‘Conscience-shocking’

Hot off the wires:

A federal judge blasted former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman on Thursday for reassuring New Yorkers soon after the Sept. 11 attacks that it was safe to return to their homes and offices while toxic dust was polluting the neighborhood.

U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts refused to grant Whitman immunity against a class-action lawsuit brought in 2004 by residents, students and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who said they were exposed to hazardous materials from the collapse of the World Trade Center.

...

She called Whitman's actions "conscience-shocking," saying the EPA chief knew that the fall of the twin towers released tons of hazardous materials into the air.

For background, see here.

Oil problems

Matt Yglesias makes a great point about the "oil addiction" business.

There are three kinds of problems that people tend to have about oil. The most politically salient of them is that people are concerned that gasoline costs too much. The most longstanding of them is that gasoline is bad for the environment. The chic high-minded one is that gasoline is bad geopolitics.

People keep wanting to get on the right side of all three of these concerns, but it's worth appreciating that they're somewhat in tension.

There's some great discussion in the comments too.