It's going to get big time serious over the next decades. Bush had his opportunity with a Republican controlled Congress and produced nothing. Now he goes to Saudi to plea for more oil and gets, NO! while holding hands with the Saudi King.
I am embrassed. Bush is a total failure on this issue. There is no amount of spinning or parsing - our President got punked by a bunch of Islamofacist sand-lizards.
I don’t place blame on anybody but Mother Nature. Oil is a totally natural, accidental gift, totally undeserved by the country that happens to have received the gift. Venezuela, Saudi, USA, Mexico, Canada, Russia. No amount of legislation can make this gift appear or disappear, although it can be and is mismanaged more often than not. Carter was on the short end of oil development and the economy began to suck. Oil was improving under Reagan so the economy began to improve. Total accident. The present situation is bad and the next 25 years will be worse and the worst thing is it didn’t have to happen. The USA could have got through the 25 years of alternative development very easily and painlessly but did next to nothing. It must be done now in conditions of general inconvenience. Nukes, whatever, must be done and the 30 years were wasted through inaction. Everybody shares the blame but blame won’t get the job done.