The end of oil?

摘要

The president of the United States comes from the oil-rich state of Texas, and the impression has gained currency abroad, if not in the US itself, that the interests of the oil industry have bulked large during his presidency. Whether that is justified or not, it certainly meant that one particular phrase in his annual State of the Union message, delivered at the end of January, received more attention than is usual for an event that rarely lives up to its advance billing. America, said George W Bush, is "addicted to oil". And he used the speech, which is one of the great set-pieces of US politics, to launch a campaign for "a research programme focusing on the development of clean energy technologies". The aim, he said, was "to move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past".