STATE OF THE UNION

Energy and the Environment

In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush pledged to "promote energy independence for our country, while dramatically improving the environment." He has failed on both counts. American Progress has an energy plan to move our country forward. Today, the Progress Report takes a detailed look at the State of Energy and the Environment in the United States. This is the first in a series that will take a candid look at the state of the nation in key issue areas, leading up to the President Bush's State of the Union next Tuesday. For more on the state of presidential credibility, be sure to check out our new video and comprehensive report.

GAS CONSUMPTION: America spends $200,000 a minute on foreign oil. Sixty-five percent of oil consumed in the United States comes from foreign sources, up from 58 percent in 2000. Each year, more than $25 billion for oil imports goes to Persian Gulf states. Over the last 30 years, oil market disruptions have cost the economy seven trillion dollars. Last year, 58 percent of Americans said that high gas prices in 2005 caused them "serious" or "moderate" hardship.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Throughout his term, President Bush has repeatedly questioned whether climate change exists and has done little to address the problem. Recently six former heads of the Environmental Protection Agency -- including five who served under Republican presidents -- criticized Bush's lack of leadership and commitment to reversing global climate change. "We need leadership, and I don't think we're getting it," said Russell Train, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations. While the Bush administration may want to ignore the facts, the signs of global warming are clear. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Monitoring Branch placed 2005 at or near the warmest year on record, continuing a clear trend of abnormally warm years. Six of the warmest years on record have occurred in the past eight years. As a result of this warm weather, the Arctic ice shelf is melting and polar bears are drowning. "In what scientists regard as an alarming sign of events to come, the area of the Arctic's perennial polar ice cap is declining at the rate of 9 percent per decade." The world has not forgotten Hurricane Katrina, but unfortunately, there may be more similar storms to come. Last year marked the most active hurricane season on record, with 27 named tropical storms for the first time since systematic record-keeping began about 150 years. Three of the six most powerful hurricanes -- Katrina, Rita, and Wilma -- ever recorded in the Atlantic basin occurred this past year.

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS: Despite the Department of Energy's projections that carbon emissions from the United States are expected to increase 37 percent by 2030, the Bush administration has still not "proposed any comprehensive plan to limit carbon emissions from vehicles, utilities and other sources." The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has reached 380 parts per million (ppm), 27 percent higher than anytime in the past 650,000 years; emissions in 2004 were 16 percent higher than the 1990 emissions levels. The Bush administration's actions on emissions have been woefully inadequate, even though the United States produces 25 percent of carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning, more than the emissions of China, India, and Japan combined. But the states are stepping in where the Bush administration has stepped away, increasingly regulating energy use and emissions. Seven states have signed on a regional plan to restrict power plant emissions and 11 states have adopted, or are in the process of adopting, automobile tailpipe emissions requirements. "What is frustrating is that these things aren't being done on a national basis," said Maine Gov. John E. Baldacci (D).

POLLUTION: Americans continue to suffer health risks from high amounts of pollution. 600,000 children are born each year at risk for developmental problems and learning disabilities and 24,000 Americans die an average of 14 years early because of exposure to power plant pollution. At least one in five Americans will die of some form of cancer, partly because state and federal governments allowed polluters to dump more than 175 million pounds of cancer-causing chemicals into the air and water since 1996. According to the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, cancer is the "leading cause of disease related death among children in the United States, afflicting approximately 8,000 children under the age of 15 per year." Minorities tend to be most at risk. According to an Associated Press analysis, "black Americans are 79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where industrial pollution is suspected of posing the greatest health danger." But the Bush administration's plan does little to clean up the air. Instead, it represents a step backward from simply enforcing the current law, the Clean Air Act. Similarly, the Clean Power Act, a leading bipartisan proposal to clean up power plans once and for all, would save 8,000 more lives per year than the Bush administration plan.