Set America Free Notes&Comments

to Rep Bradley, Jeb [NH-1], Rep Drake, Thelma D. [VA-2], Rep Gingrey, Phil [GA-11], and Rep Hayworth, J. D. [AZ-5] for becoming cosponsors of HR4409, The Fuel Choices for American Security Act.
Is your Representative on board yet?

Cliff May writes:

“For a long time, oil products have enjoyed a monopoly because oil has been cheap and easy. But it’s getting less cheap and Americans ought to be growing uneasy about sending billions of dollars to corners of the Earth where terrorism is both preached and practiced.

“To solve this dilemma, we could invest in a new Manhattan project. If we gathered the smartest scientists and gave them a ton of money, might they develop an automobile that would run not just on gasoline but also on non-petroleum-based fuels?

“News bulletin: The technology to run cars on alternative fuels already exists. The cost: less than $150 per vehicle [...]

“There are other technologies we can and should – in the interest of national security – give a boost. Hybrid cars that utilize batteries for short trips are selling well. A huge improvement would be plug-in hybrids that can use a standard electric outlet to charge. Because less than 2 percent of American electricity is generated from oil, plug-in hybrids would allow city drivers and commuters traveling under 40 miles a day to use no gasoline at all. Equipped also as FFVs, they wouldn’t need to use gas on longer trips either.

“Bills based on the Set America Free plan for energy security are before both the House and Senate: H.R. 4409 and S.2025. Who would oppose such progress? An army of special interests that benefit from the status quo. These groups will fight like ferrets to preserve petroleum’s market share and to preserve the tax and tariff advantages they now enjoy.

“Is it too much to ask that a critical mass of politicians from both sides of the aisle stand up to them, break oil’s monopoly, reduce America’s dependence on foreign energy and allow us to stop funding both sides in the War Against Terrorism?”

There is a genocide in process in Sudan. The Islamist Arab regime of Sudan, via the Janjaweed militias, has been murdering, raping, and enslaving its way through the country. First it massacred 2 million Christians and animists, and now it has set its sites on the Sufi Muslims. The murdered are black.

Sudan is a critical oil supplier to China. In turn, China provides weapons and cover to the Sudanese regime – a coveted U.N. Security Council veto on any attempt at sanctions.

Nicholas Kristof writes:
“China is now underwriting its second genocide in three decades. The first was in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and the second is in Darfur, Sudan. Chinese oil purchases have financed Sudan’s pillage of Darfur. Chinese-made AK-47s have been the main weapons used to slaughter several hundred thousand people in Darfur so far, and China has protected Sudan in the U.N. Security Council [...]

“the Arab League…met last month in Sudan, in effect legitimizing the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Muslims (almost all the victims in Darfur are Muslim) [...] And where’s the Arab press? Isn’t the murder of 300,000 or more Muslims almost as offensive as a Danish cartoon?

“The biggest obstacle to forceful action is China. The latest outrage came a few days ago when the United States and Britain tried to impose the most feeble possible sanctions ? targeting just four people, including a midlevel Sudanese official. China and Russia blocked even that pathetic action.

“Why is China soft on genocide?

“The essential reason is oil. China traditionally was self-sufficient in oil, but since 1993 it has been a net oil importer, and it is increasingly worried about this vulnerability [...]

“About 60 percent of Sudan’s oil flows to China, and Beijing has a close economic and even military relationship with Khartoum. A recent Council on Foreign Relations report on Africa notes that China has supplied Sudan with small arms, anti-personnel mines, howitzers, tanks, helicopters and ammunition. China has even established three arms factories in Sudan, and you see Chinese-made AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns all over Darfur.”

To Rep Bonner, Jo [AL-1], Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8], Rep Bono, Mary [CA-45], Rep Pryce, Deborah [OH-15], and Rep Rogers, Mike D. [AL-3] for becoming co-sponsors of HR4409, The Fuel Choices for American Security Act.
Is your Representative on board yet?

“No two countries have reached out to each other so eagerly and moved so swiftly to bridge the huge distance of geography and history as Saudi Arabia and China have [...] If 9/11 events forced Riyadh to explore new relationships, China?s phenomenal growth and its ever-growing appetite for energy is driving it to hunt for old and new sources of oil.” Khaleej Times

Of course, with the economic relations comes political support. China isn’t particularly concerned about those pesky little human rights issues the US has been pestering the Saudis about, like religious freedom, women’s rights, etc etc etc

The New York Times quotes Gal Luft on the issue:

“With the Chinese there are no strings attached,” said Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. “They don’t talk to you about democracy or reform. They give money, the Saudis give oil and there are no hidden agendas. The Saudis find those kinds of relationships more appealing.”

For more background, read The Sino-Saudi Connection.

Kudos to Senator Cantwell for becoming a co-sponsor of S.2025, The Vehicle and Fuel Choices for American Security Act.
Is your Senator on board yet?

..at the Renewable Fuel Association’s conference, joined by Set America Free’s Jim Woolsey, Rep. Jack Kingston, who is leading the charge on the Fuel Choices for American Security Act in the House, and Sen. Salazar, an outspoken advocate of the companion legislation in the Senate. Stay tuned!

Senator Sam Brownback and Set America Free Coalition chair Anne Korin will be speaking at Southern New Hampshire University.

If you’ve been following Set America Free you’ve heard the following several times already. A big excerpt from today’s New York Times editorial:

“When President Bush welcomes the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, to the White House today, the American complaint will be that China’s appetite for oil affects its stance on Iran, Sudan and other trouble spots.

“In other words, China is acting just like everyone else: subjugating its foreign policy to its energy concerns. The United States does it, too ? witness its long-running alliance with Saudi Arabia. Still, the size of China’s population ? 1.3 billion people ? puts things into an alarming context. China recently overtook Japan as the world’s second-biggest consumer of oil. Its real gross domestic product is growing at 8 to 10 percent a year, and its need for energy is projected to increase by about 150 percent by 2020. China’s move from bicycles to cars has accelerated its oil consumption; by 2010, China is expected to have 90 times the number of cars it had in 1990, and it will probably have more cars than America by 2030.

“That leaves the world with two options. The first is to manage energy resources better. The other is to look for another planet. Simply continuing the current trends isn’t viable, especially with the growing needs of India, with its one billion people and a growing economy of its own.

“The United States doesn’t have the right to tell a third of humanity to go back to their bicycles because the party’s over. Clearly, Mr. Bush and Mr. Hu must tackle energy in a real and meaningful way. That can be done only if the United States both helps China find alternative energy sources and shows that America is doing the same thing itself.

“The best possible course would be for China to leapfrog an oil-based economy and head toward sustainable alternative fuels, just as other countries are jumping past the construction of land lines for telephone service and going straight to wireless systems.”

“If we can get to the moon, virtually from scratch and in just eight years, we can become independent of the mullahs, ayatollahs, sheiks, imams and whackos like the president of Iran and assorted other world criminals who hate us and want to destroy us. This will call for strong leadership from President Bush and future presidents, regardless of party.

“Various congressional investigations and reporting have revealed that the United States is subsidizing its own destruction because some of the biggest oil-producing states underwrite terrorism [...]

“Americans have always responded to major threats and challenges. Properly framed, they could be made to understand this threat as the greatest challenge the nation has ever faced. To become energy independent and no longer rely on foreign oil would be like depriving Dracula of his blood supply: he would shrivel up and die.” Read the whole thing.