Am I dreaming or am I awake?

This morning I woke up to the sound of George W. Bush on the radio urging his fellow countrymen and women to.....yes......save energy!

Then, I went to the door and picked up my copy of the Financial Times (subscription only) and what do I read? Sadad Al-Husseini, former head of exploration at Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil producer, saying that "the best alternative energy is energy efficiency".

And he goes even further:"There is too much wastage with energy. There are too many cars that are far bigger than what they need to be. In the home, there are often heating and air conditioners on unnecessarily"

And what's more, he added that predictions of oil demand reaching 120 million barrels a day in 20 years, 40% up from now, are "nonsense" - as there simply isn't enough oil.

"We don't have to invest in new technologies or look for new ways to save energy, they are already in existence - they just need to be promoted more".

Then apparently the Group of 8 asked the International Energy Agency to do further research on energy efficiency and climate change and report back ahead of a meeting next month.

The problem, as the FT points out, is that yes, right, Bush may be now panicking and telling people perhaps those environmentalists were right in going on and on about energy efficiency. But then, his administration has just passed new fuel efficiency standards for cars for 2008-2011 that are simply not good enough for getting better cars on the market - or at least as good as those sold elsewhere in the world.

What am I going to write in my blog now? I've been outstaged!


energy
environment