Informed Speculation

Most of the pre-game speculation on tonight’s SOTU address has focused on energy policy.  Typical is this piece from the Associated Press:

In his first State of the Union address to a Democratic-controlled Congress, President Bush is calling for Americans to slash gasoline consumption by up to 20 percent by 2017.

Bush envisions the goal being achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the federal government mandates must be produced. The rest of the fuel use reduction is to come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters in a briefing before Bush’s Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress.

The president is proposing to set the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that must be blended into the fuel supply at 35 billion gallons by 2017, up from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. He also wants to expand the standard to include not just ethanol but a wide range of oil alternatives, such as biodiesel, methanol, butanol and hydrogen, Kaplan said.

The other piece of Bush’s energy proposal is something he has unsuccessfully asked Congress for in the past — the ability to rewrite mileage rules for new car fleets. The White House calls it a safe way to improve car mileage, but some critics suggest that it could instead spur automakers to produce more gas guzzlers.

Other items sure to get attention include Iraq, Iran, and health care…but I find myself strangely uninvolved, and the feeling seems to be widespread.  Given the recent vintage of the major Iraq address, this feels anti-climactic.  Moreover, the hostility that greets President Bush’s every utterance these days has made the speeches worthless, for all intents and purposes.  The New York Times’ lead editorial tomorrow is already written (it’s a harsh denouncement of the President’s agenda), and nothing he says tonight will change that…