This guy is clueless.

Did any of you happen to catch George W.'s call for sacrifice on the part of the American public yesterday? Can't blame you if you missed it. His call was so weak-kneed and half-hearted that it seems unlikely that any network would include it in a sound-bite package.

So after not calling for sacrifice in the wake of 9/11 or in the run-up to the Iraq War or its ensuing, mushrooming insurgency, what finally motivated our fearless leader to appeal to our sense of patriotism? Surging oil prices resulting from the recent hurricanes. After a visit to the Department of Energy to survey their impacts on refineries and oil rigs in the Gulf, Bush urged all Americans to er, um, sorta try to maybe think about thinking about restricting unnecessary driving.

"Two other points I want to make is, one, we can all pitch in by using -- by being better conservers of energy. I mean, people just need to recognize that the storms have caused disruption and that if they're able to maybe not drive when they -- on a trip that's not essential, that would helpful."

And while this quote seems straightforward enough, hopefully you saw the video of him himming-and-hawing and stumbling over saying it. Not too inspiring really.

One would think that if the conservation message was one that Bush was really sincere about, that he would have said more and said it better to underscore its importance. But then we know that Bush isn't sincere about conservation and isn't prepared to implement such an initiative because there were precious few commitments to conservation in the Energy Bill which kicked around in Congress for four years before passage.

Conservation is something that I feel passionate about. I believe that it is something eminently doable in this country. While we are far more energy efficient these days than we were in the 1970s, say, there is much more that can be done. And it can be done with a little effort, using existing technologies and in ways that are ultimately profitable for business. All it takes is some political will and leadership. Two things in short supply in Washington, D.C. these days.

As the National Energy Strategy first rounded into form, I had no problem with the Bush Administration's desire to augment exploration and refining capacity so long as such efforts were paired with conservation measures. When the Energy Bill was belatedly passed a couple of months ago, I was quite angry to see that precious few conservation elements ended up in the bill. And now, of course, Bush finds himself backpedaling his way into a "conservation strategy" of "Hey, don't drive so much." What's next? a Carter-esque call to turn down our thermostats and wear sweaters? While the short-term impingements on oil supplies will ultimately work themselves out, we still don't seem to have a long-term energy strategy. Evidence of this is Bush's current plan to release supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is really more about keeping prices down for political purposes than it is for anything else. Robbing Peter to pay Paul to minimize downside political risk is neither wise nor evidence of a strategy.

Over the long run, we all recognize that oil supplies are finite. We also recognize that dependence on foreign energy supplies limits the flexibility of our foreign policy. And now in the wake of the hurricanes, we have a greater understanding of how tenuous our supply lines are. These are all good reasons to do more in the way of alternative energy sources. Whether solar, "clean coal," fuel cells, wind, nuclear, geothermal or biomass, there are a number of options available to us. And while I don't share the hysterics' panic over dwindling oil supplies, there is no time like the present to get started in making the shift as part of a comprehensive national energy strategy. We should increase incentives to encourage more R&D and adoption of these technologies. However, in the meantime, we should really get serious about conservation. As I said previously, it can be done with existing technologies and with a mimimum of pain. But it's going to take more leadership than we saw out of President Bush yesterday to make it a reality.