The comments from the speech
We were bombarded with interpretations today about what President Obama said about the administration’s stance on the electric vehicle (EV) marketplace in the United States. So we tracked down the transcript of his speech last night to see what he had to say. This quote is pulled directly from the transcript:
With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
He went on to say this:
We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies.
It is good to have goals, but one must have a plan of action to achieve the goal. It is good to say stop giving money to big oil, but quite another to actually make it happen. John Stewart (whether you like him or not) ran an outstanding 8 minute piece back in June of last year regarding the progress, or rather the lack of progress made in reducing our nation’s dependency on foreign oil. In essence, it is one thing to say great things about what one wishes to accomplish, but quite another to actually accomplish them.
What the nation needs is a national energy policy. Watch the video. It is clear that we have not had one for almost forty years. It’s about time we did.