My reaction from tonight’s State of the Union address is actually quite positive! I’ve subdivided my opinion into sections:

Energy: It is refreshing to see the President do a complete 180 in regards to his oil policies. In past years his energy policies have been all about increasing oil imports, securing oil from foreign interests (blocking China from buying American oil companies), and drilling for more oil in various locations (ANWAR, Gulf of Mexico, etc). Tonight he actually talked about getting rid of our “oil addiction” altogether! That sort of blew my mind—him being the “oil President” n’ all.

However, it seems insanely optimistic to think that we can somehow get rid of 75% of our oil usage by 2025. As if we can just spend a few bucks here and there, magically snap our fingers and poof! There’s fuel cell vehicles everywhere! The most optimistic estimate (before this) I’ve ever seen was something like 50% by 2050. I guess I can’t fault him for being hopeful.

I was disheartened by his persistence on “clean coal” (which isn’t) and the odd mention of ethanol. I have to give him credit though for mentioning switchgrass. He’s obviously had his team do some research on, “what is the most efficient agricultural product to make ethanol with?”. Sadly, it still isn’t a very good energy product as we’re still getting out about as much energy as we put in.

On a positive note, he did announce that he would be increasing spending on wind and solar R&D. Hopefully discoveries from this research will unleash patent-free innovations that will increase the usage of such technologies. I’m guessing that any technology patents that come out of this increased funding will wind up in the hands of big oil companies (who already own zillions of solar patents).

Also on this front is the fact that the whole point of “clean coal” is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Does this signal a change in the President’s stance that global warming doesn’t exist? Is he going to stop censoring scientists? Has he changed his mind that “Energy production overrules CO2 emissions”?

Science & Education: Yet again I’m severely disappointed in our President’s ability to understand the nature of this country’s science problems. He seems to think that training teachers to teach advanced placement classes in math and science is somehow going to foster interest in the subjects (not that the teachers themselves would even be interested). Hopefully his other idea of getting professionals into classrooms to teach will have precedence.

When whole states are considering teaching religious myths in science class I severely doubt that mere teacher training is going to make a dent. It sure seems hypocritical when you consider that his has been one of the most anti-science administrations in history.

Then there’s the whole human cloning thing. It is obvious that this is one of those areas where his mind is made up (read: closed). Everything I’ve ever heard Bush say about human cloning seems to demonstrate a severe lack of understanding and tonight’s speech didn’t change that. He obviously equates human cloning to some sort of act against his deity… When in reality human cloning has more to do with growing replacement organs and curing neuro-degenerative diseases. Taking a cell out of your body and cloning it is technically “human cloning” but it is a far cry from “people cloning” which is an entirely different ethical discussion.

How can he proclaim that science & technology is the savior of this country’s oil problems when his actions clearly show a complete disrespect for science? He is cherry-picking the science that supports his ideals and discarding (and attempting to discredit) the rest. Science doesn’t work like that. If you turn to science for answers, you cannot turn a blind eye when the answers you get don’t agree with your beliefs! The promise of science is to get to the bottom of things—to find the truth. The truth can’t always be popular and easy!

That’s it for now. I’m sure I’ll have more to say tomorrow.