Last night’s farewell State of the Union address left journalists scrounging for any semblance of new initiatives or programs, particularly on the environment and energy front. At the very least, the Bush speechwriting team showed its laziness by not even attempting to change the wording of the rhetoric that the president has used for the better part of his two terms.

There is general agreement the one crumb of news from last night is the new international clean-technology fund, briefly touched upon by Bush. While the president didn’t get into specifics (tough to do when you only devote 220 words to all environmental issues), U.S. News & World Report says today that the White House sent out a summary of his plans that specified the president is committed to spending $2 billion over the next three years on this idea.

ABC News has one of the best summaries on the substance of and reaction to the environmental initiatives – or lack thereof -- included the SOTU.

Reuters does what it can with little in the way of details about the technology fund, also making note of Bush’s pledge to work with major countries and the United Nations to complete an international agreement that "has the potential to slow, stop and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases."

Environment New Service expounds on the rehashed rhetoric of the night, noting that the one paragraph devoted to environmental issues included pleas to embrace technology that could replace imported oil with clean coal, nuclear power and other renewables, a platform that has varied little over the seven-year Bush presidency.

ENS quotes John Passacantando, the disgruntled executive director of Greenpeace USA: "Tonight's speech contains no new initiatives on global warming. Instead, the president recycles more of the same: more subsidies for dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power … Greenpeace applauds the president's address tonight not for its style, substance or eloquence, but for the fact that it his last."

Finally, even the Weather Channel chimes in, writing that “Bush broke little new ground when it came to global climate change, maintaining his stance that technology and innovation would help America tackle the challenge.”