U.S. Oil Addiction: What Bush Really Meant

Only one day after President Bush used the State of the Union address to promote alternative energy sources, his energy secretary and national economic adviser are backing away from the comments, saying, 'the president didn't mean it literally.'

1 minute read

February 3, 2006, 8:00 AM PST

By Michael Dudley


"What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025. But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are.

[President Bush] pledged to 'move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.'

Not exactly, though, it turns out. 'This was purely an example,' Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said."

Wednesday, February 1, 2006 in Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau

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