Bush Advisors: Don’t Take the President Literally on his Vow to Reduce Mideast Oil Imports

Knight Ridder

: WASHINGTON – One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America’s dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn’t mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025. | Read on to figure it out.

Reuters: WASHINGTON – Americans may drive cars in two decades that operate on pollution-free hydrogen or fuel made from grass and wood chips, but it will not be enough to reduce significantly U.S. oil imports from the Middle East.

President George W. Bush told Congress on Tuesday that America was addicted to oil and needed to slash its Middle East crude purchases by 75 percent by 2025 by building vehicles that run on alternative fuels. | story