HAS US president George Bush, the die-hard neo-conservative former Texan oil man, gone green? His state of the union speech attacked his country’s “addiction” to imported oil. Instead, he proposed all manner of alternative clean fuels and technologies that his administration was funding research into.
But Bush’s 2005 energy bill, approved by the Republican-dominated House, gave 93% of $8 billion in tax breaks to companies involved in fossil fuels and nuclear energy and only 7% to renewable energy research. He gave billions to oil companies to ‘incentivise’ oil exploration while companies such as ExxonMobil are making billions in profits because of current record highs in oil prices.

The energy bill also opened the door for such companies to get leases to drill for oil in the Alaskan wilderness, thereby threatening pristine natural habitats.

Moreover, there is little incentive for capitalists to switch producing petrol-driven automobiles to electric or fuel cell-powered vehicles. Clearly oil will account for nearly 100% of fuel for transport in the foreseeable future. Only a workers’ government with a socialist energy/transport policy can end capitalism’s addiction to the ‘black gold’.