Bush at the State of the Union on Tuesday:

The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly 10 billion dollars to develop cleaner, cheaper, more reliable alternative energy sources – and we are on the threshold of incredible advances. So tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative – a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies; and clean, safe nuclear energy.

The reality — Bush cutting the budget for the Department of Energy’s alternative fuels research division by 15%, and laying off scientists working in the fields of biomass fuels, wind energy and other alternative energy source projects:

The Energy Department will begin laying off researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the next week or two because of cuts to its budget.

A veteran researcher said the staff had been told that the cuts would be concentrated among researchers in wind and biomass, which includes ethanol. Those are two of the technologies that Mr. Bush cited on Tuesday night as holding the promise to replace part of the nation’s oil imports.

The budget for the laboratory, which is just west of Denver, was cut by nearly 15 percent, to $174 million from $202 million, requiring the layoff of about 40 staff members out of a total of 930, said a spokesman, George Douglas. The cut is for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.

First, the Preznit said we’d be reducing our addiction to foreign oil, and backed off that promise yesterday. Now we find he’d already cut the budget for the very alternative fuel initiatives he touted as potential substitutes — before he ever gave the State of the Union.

George Bush: open mouth, insert false promises. ThinkProgress has a whole host of other lies from the Bush Administration. For shame, Bushie.

At least we still have that whole Manimal thing. (Don’t we? I still don’t know what that was about…)

(Hat tip to reader tom for the heads up on the Bumiller article. Graphics love to The DemStoreMonthly.)