Just a day after President Bush encouraged Americans to conserve fuel by elminating unnecessary travel - and said he had directed federal employees, like himself, to curtail extraneous trips - he went on a very expensive jaunt to his home state of Texas for a series of politically oriented photo-ops:

[Yesterday, President Bush] boarded Air Force One for a trip to inspect hurricane damage that will burn up roughly 11,437 gallons of jet fuel, worth about $24,590 at today’s record high fuel prices.

In fact … using the best available numbers for Bush’s travel since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, for the performance of Air Force One and for jet fuel prices — estimates that Bush has spent $169,314 on jet fuel alone…

Some studies have placed the total cost of operating Air Force One at at least $56,800 an hour or more, meaning that Bush’s hurricane related travel has cost taxpayers somewhere in the range of $2 million or more — just for the air travel!