my socks are still on

Al Hubbard is easily impressed:

Al Hubbard, chairman of the National Economic Council, who is co-ordinating White House energy policy, has also raised expectations. In a speech at De Pauw University he predicted “headlines above the fold that will knock your socks off in terms of our commitment to energy independence”.

Well, Bush did mention "it" once:

America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change.

But that's not a real sock-dropper. So we're going to mix some more corn juice into the soup until we find a way to make ethanol more cheaply from grass. And we'll get a slight modification in how CAFE standards are determined. Not too bad, but we could and should expect more. Hey, a 20% reduction in crude oil consumption will definitely help us but will not be all we'll need to do. Hopefully switch grass can achieve most of our goals in producing ethanol efficiently--since corn and soybeans definitely won't--but what if switch grass doesn't work? We'll need a few more alternatives and ultimately more investment into solar, wind and a slew of other projects like plug-in hybrids and biofuels; all of which were mentioned in last night's SOTU but they still weren't seriously tackled by either the President or any of the Democrats interviewed after the speach.

Meanwhile Tierney ponders the gas tax again. And indeed, as he points out, it is a taboo in American politics. However, Bush's proposal to double the size of the strategic reserve could have a similar effect, at least in the short term. A doubling amounts to about a billion barrels spread out over a handful of years taken off the market and possibly accelerating a demand-driven price increase similar to the one we saw recently. That should help reduce excessive driving worldwide for a bit, shouldn't it?