President Bush today called for Americans to slash their petrol consumption by a fifth over the next 10 years as he linked his goal of establishing energy independence with the need to tackle climate change.

The annual State of the Union address — the first he has had to make to a Democrat-dominated Congress — was inevitably overshadowed by the war in Iraq, which helped sweep the Republicans from power on Capitol Hill in November and has driven his approval ratings down to record low levels.

But Mr Bush walked into the chamber offering smiles, handshakes and congratulations to the victorious Democrats. He earned huge cheers by saying that it was his “high privilege” to be the first President to begin his State of the Union address with the words “Madam Speaker”, a reference to Democrat Nancy Pelosi seated symbolically behind him.

He said, like many presidents before him in similarly straightened circumstances, that he was ready to co-operate with his opponents, to “work through our differences, and achieve big things for the American people”.

The most eye-catching of what the White House claimed were “bold and visionary” initiatives was on energy — an issue which has already galvanised Democrats in the new Congress to table Bills for limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

His plan to cut petrol use by 20 per cent over the next decade, the “twenty in ten goal”, would be the equivalent of replacing three quarters of the oil currently imported form the Middle East. He suggested that targets for the supply of alternative fuels should rise five-fold, while he also asked Congress for powers to set car-makers new fuel efficiency standards — saving billions of gallons of petrol by 2017.

Mr Bush said that this would not only help secure America’s energy supplies against hostile regimes but also reduce carbon emissions. “America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. These technologies will help us become better stewards of the environment and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change,” he said.

Critics will still attack Mr Bush for failing to impose targets for reducing emissions such as those accepted by most other western countries under the Kyoto protocol. Indeed, Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, sought to play down the extent of Mr Bush’s conversion, saying that the President had recognised climate change as a problem five years ago — a time when the US Administration was still pouring doubt on the notion that mankind was responsible for the problem. But this State of the Union address was still a marked contrast to that of last year when Mr Bush gave warning that America was “addicted to oil” but did not mention climate change. This morning he called for “a stable supply of energy that keeps America’s economy running and environment clean”.

US public opinion on this issue has been influenced by the likes of Al Gore — Mr Bush’s defeated opponent in the 2000 presidential contest — whose climate change film An Inconvenient Truth grossed $24 million and has been nominated for two Oscars.

Polls published yesterday showed Mr Bush’s support among US voters was the worst for any president on the day of a State of the Union address since 1974 when Richard Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal. A CBS poll put Mr Bush’s approval ratings at just 28 per cent, while around two thirds of voters oppose his plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.

Mr Bush devoted almost half of his 50-minute speech to foreign policy where he emphasised once again that winning the war in Iraq was crucial for American security. “The consequences of failure would be grievous and far-reaching,” he said.

Although he has acknowledged that there was scepticism about his new plan, including among several Republican Senators who are expected to join Democrats in voting against it today, Mr Bush insisted that to win the war “we must take the fight to the enemy,” adding: “I ask you to give it a chance to work.”

Speaking to an audience which included potential candidates from both parties to succeed him in 2008, he said that the war on terror would continue long after he had left office and “that is why it is important to work together”.

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LONG AND SHORT

The longest State of the Union was Truman’s 25,000-word address in 1946. The shortest, 883 words, was also the first — George Washington’s in New York in January 1790

Sources: ABC, CBC, Washington Post

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