In one of the less insightful wire stories of the year the Associated Press reported today that President Bush is responsible for the consumption of an enormous amount of fuel. He rides in the Air Force One, helicopters, and in heavily armored limousines all of which require increasingly expensive gasoline. Furthermore, the bill gets steeper every day as the White House is rocked by the same energy prices as regular drivers. Even worse, the AP reminds us that taxpayers foot the bill for all of this Presidential travel! AP:

Bush is one of the nation’s most-traveled presidents. He has visited 46 countries, some of them several times, during his presidency. He has been to all states except Vermont and Rhode Island.

The AP’s message is that Bush is spending too much money on fuel, presumably by visiting less populated states such as Nebraska, Kansas, Dakotas, etc. that possibly could be dealt with via telephone or perhaps the new Google Talk!  Furthermore, the AP notes that when he does travel, the President’s mode of transportation is very fuel inefficient.

The president’s limos alone consume lots of gas….The vehicle Bush uses is a much different animal — with different gas mileage. An outside company customizes the DTS for presidential use by “stretching” it to limo length, adding bulletproof glass, heavy armor and other bells and whistles — all making it significantly heavier and less fuel-efficient…”

One wonders if it would be any different if someone else was in the White House? Would John Kerry be shuttled around in a Prius? Would he ask his Secret Service agents to carpool more and reduce unnecessary trips? The AP didn’t answer these questions but did weigh in with this:

Reducing his appearances outside the White House and making other gestures toward fuel conservation could help cut down on costs.

Okay, enough of this AP silliness. Exactly how much fuel could be saved by reducing Presidential appearances? Independent Sources calculates that since the U.S. imports approximately 12 million barrels per day of crude oil and each barrel of oil generates about 20 gallons of gasoline equalling 236 million gallons a day or 86.1 billion gallons a year, even if the the President cut his travel to zero, on the national basis the savings wouldn’t even register a blip. And even curtailing travel a little would certainly meet with regional opposition. San Francisco’s SF Gate recently printed this pouting piece about the lack of Presidential attention on the City:

Now in the fifth year of his presidency, Bush has yet to set a foot in the city that was home to his childhood baseball idol, Willie Mays, and shows no inclination to do so. The White House is planning a California visit by the end of the month, and San Francisco is not on the itinerary.

hat tip: Wizbang

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 at 9:50 am by Insider and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.