The Bush team's ridiculous and wildly inflammatory anti-drug ads are still running in heavy rotation. You know the ads: innocent-looking, middle-class teens admitting their culpability for the vicious consequences of the drug trade. "I helped blow up buildings," says one doe-eyed youth.

So if that is legitimate logic, and our president says it is, perhaps we should start a little ad campaign of our own to sabotage another misguided Bush campaign: the war on conservation.

The idea sprang forth after the startling announcement that the administration was taking precious time off from an actual, necessary war -- the one on terrorism -- to sue the state of California for daring to require that car makers put more energy-efficient models on the road.

Turning the letter of the Federal Clean Air Act against its clear intent, Department of Justice lawyers lined up on behalf of the administration's friends in the hydrocarbon-loving auto manufacturing industry and argued that as long as California's cars were in compliance with federal standards, the state could not impose tougher ones.

For those keeping score, the Bush administration is in favor of states' rights when the states want to weaken federal safety standards of any kind and against states' rights when the states want stronger measures.

So how about using the same shock tactics that the administration uses in the drug war to confront the public with the ultimate consequences of its energy wastefulness. Imagine a soccer mom in a Ford Excursion (11 mpg city, 15 mpg highway) saying, "I'm building a nuclear bomb for Saddam Hussein." Or a mob of solo drivers tootling down the freeway at 75 mph shouting in unison: "We're buying weapons that will kill American soldiers, Marines and sailors! Yahoo!"

Scott Burns, co-creator of the "Got Milk?" campaign, already has two ad scripts ready to go.

The first one feels like an old Slim-Fast commercial. Instead of "I lost 50 pounds in two weeks," the ad cuts to different people in their sport utility vehicles: "I gassed 40,000 Kurds," "I helped hijack an airplane," "I helped blow up a nightclub," and then in unison: "We did it all by driving to work in our SUVs."

The second ad, which opens on a man at a gas station, features a child's voice-over throughout: "This is George." Then we see a close-up of a gas pump. "This is the gas George buys for his car." Next we see a guy in a suit. "This is the oil company executive who makes money on the gas George buys." Close-up on Al Qaeda training film footage: "This is the terrorist organization supported by money from the country where the oil company does business." It's followed by footage of 9/11: "We all know what this is." And it closes on a wide shot of bumper-to-bumper traffic: "The biggest weapon of mass destruction is parked in your driveway."

Can the administration seriously deny that oil dollars finance a spreading slick of evil in the world today? In Iraq, oil money has kept Hussein's repressive regime afloat even in the midst of tough U.N. sanctions.

In Saudi Arabia, our second-largest foreign supplier of oil, the money spent at U.S. pumps pays for a feudal monarchy that has gorged itself on excess while supporting suicide bombers.

Even our close ally Kuwait, our 11th-largest oil supplier, manifests an ambivalence toward the U.S. that, if you accept the Bush administration's drug war arguments about the validity of remote effects, resulted in this month's assassination of an American Marine while he was on a military exercise. Thank you, Exxon.

Would it be so painful for us to slow down the intravenous drip of oil that keeps these hideously anti-American regimes alive? Some simple conservation measures -- chief among them increasing our fuel-efficiency -- would greatly reduce our dependence on foreign oil. There are car companies with electric and hybrid cars already on the market. And a little pressure on our wasteful ways could unleash a new wave of good old American inventiveness.

Bush Inc. has sided with the Enrons of the world to stifle energy-saving technology and keep the U.S. in an artificially prolonged state of dependence. Of course, waiting for the Bush administration to get religion on energy conservation would be about as fruitful as waiting for Hussein to welcome U.S. inspectors into his palaces. It ain't gonna happen. Unless, that is, the public makes it happen.

Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times

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