Bush skips over complex realities in painting progress on health care,

[applegrove]

Bush skips over complex realities in painting progress on health care, Iraq
21:59:53 EST Jan 31, 2006
CALVIN WOODWARD AND HOPE YEN

© The Canadian Press, 2006

"WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush set energy self-sufficiency goals Tuesday night that would still leave the country vulnerable to unstable oil sources. He also declared he is helping more people get health care, despite a rising number of uninsured.

..... SKIP

ENERGY:

By identifying only Middle East oil imports for reductions, Bush was ignoring some of the largest sources of U.S. petroleum, among them Canada, Mexico, Nigeria and Venezuela. The U.S. considers Venezuela a source of political instability in the region; relations with Mexico have been strained over immigration; and violence has curbed nearly 10 per cent of Nigeria's oil output.

Imports of oil and refined product from the Persian Gulf make up less than a fifth of all imports, according to the government.

Bush has spoken of reducing reliance on foreign oil in every state of the union speech, if not as explicitly as in this one, and presidents back to Richard Nixon outlined similar goals, to little or no effect.

Nixon announced Project Independence in 1973, setting a goal of energy self-sufficiency in seven years. Then, the U.S. imported 35 per cent of its oil; now it's close to 60 per cent. This, despite substantive steps taken by Nixon and Jimmy Carter to spur both supply and conservation, including construction of the Alaskan oil pipeline and reduction in the highway speed limit to 90 kilometres an hour for many years.


..... SNIP"

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/060131/w0131130.html