From Breitbart.com:

President George W. Bush was set Monday to flesh out a plan to slash US “addiction” to foreign oil by cutting gasoline usage by 20 percent in the next 10 years, the White House said.

“The president will make an announcement about his directing the administration to take action to implement his ‘20 in 10′ plan to reduce the nation’s addiction to oil,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

“He will announce his latest efforts to ensure that the nation is taking aggressive steps to reduce gasoline consumption,” he told reporters.

-Snip-

The US leader wants Congress to pass legislation setting fuel economy standards that would result in quintupling the current consumption of renewable and alternative fuels to 35 billion gallons (133 billion liters) by 2017.

I’ve said it before in my State of the Union liveblog and I’ll say it again - this is a sure way to help tank the economy. It seems that politicians don’t know how laissez-faire economics should work. It’s called “hands off,” not “let us legislate our will on the market.”

The problem in this country is that too many politicians are either worried about the risk of affecting the habitat of caribou in Alaska or want to legislate high prices away. However, additional legislation and red tape is almost always a hindrance to the market, driving up prices or making it inherently more difficult for companies to distribute or promote their products and services. How about we open up ANWR to drilling, reduce gasoline taxes, reduce the required blends of gasoline, and build more oil refineries for starters. Enacting additional legislation requiring auto makers to make vehicles more fuel efficient is just asking the consumer to pay higher prices on vehicles. Hell, it’s not like auto makers aren’t having a tough time these days anyway. Additionally, taxing oil companies on their profits at a higher rate is another incentive for the price of gas and other oil-based products to rise nationwide, causing even higher amounts of inflation.

In my opinion, President Bush is completely wrong here.