Energy Consumption Is ‘All-American’

Re “Divisions Multiply Over Bush Energy Plan,” Feb. 26: President Bush, in the driveway of the White House, proudly said, “Today we had a chance to see some of the best car technologies being developed by American ingenuity.” He showed the GMC pickup, Ford SUV and Chrysler Minivan as American hybrid-fuel car models. These American models will not be available until 2004, whereas Japan has been producing and selling hybrid vehicles for about a year in the United States.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer touted the “American” vehicles’ capabilities, but Daimler-Chrysler is not an American company, just as Honda and Toyota are not American companies. If a German car company is to be included in this list of American ingenuity, I feel that Japanese cars should also be included. The president should naturally take pride in American products, but I sincerely hope that this is not a manifestation of racial/ethnic prejudice, subconsciously or otherwise.

Toshiro Igarashi

Cerritos

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The propaganda put out by the car industry (“The government wants to take away my SUV,” the fictional Sally says to her husband, Joe, in one of the ads) has reached, in terms of pure utopian disinformation, the level of myth. The U.S. has about 3% of the world’s proven oil reserves and consumes more than 25% of the planet’s energy, yet somehow Big Auto and Big Oil would have us believe that energy independence is to be found on the supply side of the equation. Americans collectively choose to ignore the evidence before their very eyes, preferring to be seduced by corporate America’s fantasy world of unlimited energy and infinite growth. When will America wake up?

Philippe Vermeyen

Vista