From "As prices soar, fuel standards get a look" in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
The Bush administration is considering removing environmental requirements for a multitude of gasoline blends as one way to increase existing supplies of gasoline and fight soaring prices, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans said in an interview with The Associated Press.[...]
Evans said one of the areas the administration was exploring was what it could do to reduce the requirements for different types of gasoline blends in different parts of the country to deal with specific pollution problems.
Yeah, because we can't be bothered to deal with pollution problems if gas prices are high. It's another example of the Bush Administration's backward thinking: go with the quick fix today, because we'll be out of office when the consequences start coming down.
That's not what we elect a president to do. He's supposed to be a leader, not a schemer. A leader would work to address the reasons we are so dependent on oil, even if the results won't be seen for years or even decades. But this President is too caught up in his own declining fortunes to offer real leadership. That's where the quick fix comes in.
