Washblog

Quote #1: Bush attempts to characterize his opponents as "protectionists" and wanting a large government to direct "the economy, centralizing more power in Washington and increasing taxes." This is a gross misunderstanding of what his opponents look like. It also demonstrates how to effectively word the sustainability movement.
        The option is not whether to support his exacerbating goals or to lock ourselves away, the option for the sustainability movement is clearly to decentralize Washington, to pull the decision making power back to the communities, and to provide a foundation for the people to govern themselves. It is not an option to "wall off our economy", but it is an option to provide jobs in local industries to the local people. Providing the economic infrastructure to foster the great American entrepreneur means to keep the local industries growing while nurturing new ones (notice how the President did not mention "entrepreneur" a single time this SOTU).
        The antithesis of his well-written goals is to decentralize our governance, our economies, our energy systems, and our mind-sets. This will allow communities to grow with their industries at the same time as improving the local response to the environmental and social challenges facing us. This will also improve the effectiveness of our tax system. The federal government will have a strong local policy infrastructure to give money to, knowing that it will be spent efficiently - local needs will be met first.
        Decentralization and the American "addiction to oil" bring us to the next quote:

Quote #2: There are a lot of good words being used in this quote; a lot of words that need become kitchen table language in every American home. However, they are masking what the real message is: put more federal dollars into research and less into on-the-ground projects to alleviate the challenges ahead.
        Aside from the constant push for [centralized] nuclear energy - clean emissions does not necessarily mean clean energy - these technologies are not new and should have been implemented decades ago. In fact, because of the variable wind and solar resources in this country, these energy options also become centralized energy sources, eliminating most of the local discourse and logic. What needs to be addressed is energy systems for remote communities along with smart-growth urban development based on small-scale integrated energy systems.
        Among the incredible resources that the President hasn't addressed is biogas waste streams (carbon dioxide and methane) released from our landfills, sewage, agriculture, and food waste. This resource could power entire urban centers with very little reliance on the massive, large-scale, centralized energy sources. The best part: the technology already exists and just needs a jumpstart from federal money into on-the-ground projects - not more research - then the market will run with it.
        Cars, cars, cars. The last thing this world needs is more cars. Did you know: there are seven gallons of oil used to make every tire? That's over 19 billion gallons of oil for the 700 million cars already on the world's roads. Not to mention the plastic that goes into cars. We have sprawling suburbia in every major city as well as big box retailers putting small towns out of business. We have turned much of the country into pavement that absorbs, rather than reflects, heat from the sun. Down the line, cars are unhealthy for our oil addiction, unhealthy for our communities, unhealthy for our children, and incredibly unhealthy for our planet. As if that's not enough, pursuing a future car culture is just another give-a-way to mega-corporations that cause much of the social suffering we see every day.
        In addition to all the cars, there is no money for our rail system - both passenger and freight. Our cities need rails as well as our distribution system, especially if we want to wean our society off of oil. Hell, even Wal-Mart could benefit from improved freight service.

        The bottom line with all this is that the words spoken in the 2006 State of the Union address seem lofty and original, but they're not. The main concepts are spoken with pride while the policies to support them undermine every American. It is easy to get swept away in the excitement of hearing President Bush tell us that we're "addicted to oil" but that clouds the obvious demise of his plans to ameliorate our situation. It is time we have a serious discussion of what sustainability means for America and how urgent this movement is.

Jesse Nelson is a Research Associate for the Institute for Washington's Future, a non-profit organization dedicated to the sustainable community development of the Pacific. Visit us at www.forwashington.org.