Do what we say....

The suddenly green Bush administration today introduced its "Energy Hog" campaign to try to encourage -- are you sitting down? conservation.

In a move reminiscent of the 1970s, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman urged Americans Monday to drive slower, turn down the thermostat and conserve energy as the coming winter threatens to bring record prices to heat a home.

Bodman announced a new national campaign called "Easy Ways to Save Energy" and said he would travel the nation to promote energy conservation.

(I assume he will not be using using Air Force One and using hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fuel each time, as the Preznit does on his daily commute to watch flood work in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. )

The Bush administration's campaign - complete with a mascot called the Energy Hog - seeks to promote conservation at home, the office and on the road.

Lest you go all gullible on me and think they mean it, consider this story from amost a month ago, which I somehow missed:

Fifteen states led by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued the U.S. Energy Department on Wednesday for failing to set efficiency standards for household appliances that would save enormous amounts of energy.

The states and the city of New York said the DOE violated Congressional mandates to adopt stronger energy-saving standards within deadlines stated by law for 22 appliances.

The suit was filed in Manhattan Federal Court after the DOE declined to respond to a July 1 notice letter asking it to take action, Spitzer said at a press conference.

"As oil and gas prices hit record levels and the impacts of global warming become more apparent, it is profoundly disappointing that the federal government has failed to adopt these crucial energy saving standards," Spitzer said.
...
Eighteen years ago, Congress passed laws requiring higher efficiency for household appliances and charged the DOE with setting standards and, over time, raising them.

By filing suit, 15 states representing 118 million people contest that the DOE has not complied with that mandate and is from six to 13 years behind schedule, depending upon the type of appliance.

So rest easy -- they have no friggin' intention of turning their brown hearts green. Conservation will remain a "personal virtue" that pales next to the joys of telling Democrats to go fuck themselves.

This, on the other hand, looks like a West Wing team photo: