With oil prices above $50 a barrel, President Bush has intimated he may finally cheat on the oil and gas industry. His mistress? Biodiesel, a clean-burning alternative fuel produced in a simple refinery process from everyday fats and oils.
In recent speeches, Bush has promised tax incentives for biodiesel in hopes of easing our dependence on foreign oil and realizing his dream of flying a soybean-fueled Space Shuttle to Mars. Biodiesel is worth a presidential sales pitch. It’s renewable, biodegradable and nontoxic. If you own a diesel-burning car or truck, you can actually take the excess oils from a fast food grill, remove the severed fingers, and use it to fill your tank. It reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 78 percent [PDF] compared to petroleum diesel, addressing the so-called “problem” of global warming.
Joining Bush on the biodiesel bandwagon is a man who’s successfully tested some of the world’s most powerful substances: Mr. Willie Nelson. Willie’s tour buses are fueled by biodiesel, and he’s created his own biodiesel product, Bio Willie, which he’s currently distributing to truck stops. Biodiesel is now sold at over 300 service stations across the country, a figure that’s growing rapidly-44 million barrels of biodiesel will be sold this year, compared to about half a million barrels just five years ago.
The only question is—which Bush are we going to get on this issue? The “let’s not and say we did” Bush who provides lip service to alternative fuels while signing an energy bill—like the current one pushed by House leaders—that commits 94% of its funds to the oil and gas industries, or the resolute cowboy Bush who can embrace new ideas so crazy they just might work.
Here’s Bush’s chance to stand his ground and actually be the guy who’s been marketed to us -- a president not afraid to shut down a military base in a congressman’s home district, replace it with a nuclear waste site, and then nickname that congressman “Nukie.”
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