I missed last night’s State of the Union Address, and this is actually pretty typical. I stopped listening to them because listening bothers and embarasses me on some level. Making no comments as to his actual intelligence or capability (this is certainly not the place for that), something about the way he talks seems to make even intelligent words sound poorly chosen.

Missing this one meant that I’ve gotten what I think is some pretty big news a day late. As part of his “Advanced Energy Initiative”, Bush announced a “22-percent increase in clean-energy research” including an increase in “our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars”.

Whoa.

Did he actually mean to say “electric cars”? And … “better batteries”? If so, there are various possibilities as to what that means.

• I’m overreacting. He was referring to mainly to hybrids, and “electric cars” just sounded appropriate in the sentence.
• I’m interpreting this correctly, but it’s smoke and mirrors. A small part of a bigger promise, which will be lost in the larger picture of various alternative energy research and funding.
• This is actually a change in policy, albeit perhaps a small one. The hydrogen-or-nothing ideology that killed grant funding for battery research a few years ago may be about to ease somewhat, allowing for some of the earlier research to continue.

Of course other technologies are also on the plate, including ones with which I don’t personally agree. I certainly could never expect ethanol and fuel cell vehicles to drop off the radar screen entirely. But if his statements do indicate a real policy shift, even if it’s small I think it’s huge news.

See also the press release elaborating on this energy policy initiative. Check the section labeled Changing The Way We Power Our Automobiles. I can’t help but be cautiously encouraged at the mention of Plug-in Hybrids. The description of their advantages says to me that even if this is a big hypefest, at least someone over there “gets it”.