Posted on 02/08/2006 4:52:23 PM PST by SJackson
HOUSTON, Texas - This oil-sated city didn't grind to a halt when George Bush proclaimed last week that America is addicted to crude.
Hardly. Oversized vehicles of all sorts continued to scream up and down wide freeways at breakneck speeds, cruising past an endless profusion of strip malls decorated by fast food joints.
It seemed appropriate that the Enron trial got under way here the same week that Bush admitted in his State of the Union address that time had run out on the big lie, the one first foisted on a gullible public by the Great Deceiver, Ronald Reagan. He's the one who had the solar collectors torn from the White House roof soon after he ousted Jimmy Carter, the only American president to have admonished the nation to look in a mirror and see its wasteful ways.
Reagan is the one who told us we should just go ahead and consume. He's the one who led the charge to weaken fuel efficiency standards, to gut research on new energy technologies, to dampen government support for energy conservation in any way, shape or form. Those who followed him, from the first Bush to Clinton, did nothing to expose the lie, and thus they were accomplices. So is the conservative machine, which has abandoned its own core principles in embracing rapacious consumption.
AP Photo/Nevada Appeal, Chad Lundquist Former President Jimmy Carter Odd though it seemed last week, here was Bush, the son of oil, proclaiming more than a quarter century later that Carter was right all along and that America needs to come to terms with its oil gluttony. Bush's words may have been the result of the carefully crafted spin that marks the current regime. They may be a response to an insider's knowledge that the spigot is, indeed, drying up. Perhaps they're a belated nod to renewable energy initiatives under way in more than a third of the states. Bush didn't say much at all, really, but he said something. That is a small step in the right direction.
Remember that it was Richard Nixon who signed some of the nation's landmark environmental legislation in the early 1970s, not because he was an environmentalist, but in response to overwhelming public sentiment and congressional grit. There is no overwhelming public sentiment on this one, not now anyway. In fact, there is public resistance. But maybe Bush sees the handwriting on the wall and wants to line up with what will soon become obvious if painful.
Your correspondent was holed up in a downtown Houston hotel last week on a work detail. At times like that, the TV becomes a surrogate friend. It's hardly ever on back at home, but in a hotel room, the blue haze is oddly comforting. There was Jimmy Carter, the day after the Bush address, appearing on "Larry King Live." In a segue to commercials, a portion of Carter's famous 1977 address flashed on the screen. A youngish and serious-looking Carter looked Americans in the eye and said, "With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes."
Carter called on Americans to contribute to the solution at a basic level. "We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. Only by saving energy can we maintain our standard of living and keep our people at work," he said.
Bush, on the other hand, spurned references to conservation in favor of marketplace solutions, perhaps still believing Vice President Dick Cheney's irresponsible refrain, "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy."
Carter in 1977 spoke about protecting the environment, focusing on renewable sources of energy such as the sun, and asking Americans, in strong terms, to stop wasting so much energy. "Ours is the most wasteful nation on Earth," he said, adding that if Americans did not start saving energy, the country was headed for an economic and social crisis. "We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren," he said.
In a few more years, Carter would be sent back to Georgia, in favor of the dreamy picture that Ronald Reagan painted for a willing nation. Precious time has been lost in the intervening years. George Bush so much as admitted it last week. It's a small step in the right direction, but pitifully late for America and the world.
Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times. E-mail: billnick@charter.net
"With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes."
Just what Jimmy accomplished on the energy front escapes me. As to war, though the conflict has earlier roots, it's fair to say Jimmy was Commander in Chief in the first major battle, and blinked.
Missing the BARF warning?
What I chiefly remember about Jimmuh's response to the energy crisis is lining up at the gas pump every other day, depending on your license plate number.
That was a GREAT plan for solving the energy crisis!
don't forget to wear your sweater!
You give him too much credit. He didn't even realize it was the first battle. I still don't think he realizes it.
I remember the gas lines when Jimma was President. That is not an accomplishment. I am also not sure what he accomplished with energy.
Wonder how much oil we'd save if we banned heaters and air conditioning in cars.
Well considering the article is titled "Carter was right...", it would be redundant.
When Reagan helped unleash the American genius, oil and gas were discovered all over the world and energy prices plummetted.
Resources expanded.
Clinton had the luxury of $10 a barrel oil.
The Bush economy is much broader and hearty than that of the 1990s and at $40-$70 a barrel oil.
Carter is a small man with a small mind.
Reagan was a mountain of heart, hope and can do!!
carter has been wrong on EVERYTHING.
We have a perfectly workable energy plan for the next 400 years.
Demand is slowly driving prices up, so that our economy can adjust to the costs without recession.
Prices are already high enough to make the Athabasca Tar Sands profitable. In another few years they will be high enough to support Oil Shale and Coal Gassification. At that point we will have a stable domestic energy supply good for 400 years at the current rates of growth.
The change in our balance of payments from the end of imported oil we will see a stupendous economic boom.
So9
They may be a response to an insider's knowledge that the spigot is, indeed, drying up.
sigh. Any sane person should easily be able to recognize that the President did not say these things because of the oil spigot "drying up". Any sane person should be able to recognize that he probably said this because most of the world's oil is produced in countries overflowing with insane, goat humping, death cultists, and that continuing deal with them to secure such a vital source of energy is akin to suicide and slavery. Of course, I wouldn't expect a leftist "journalist" to be sane or rational and be able to see this.
Oh don't forget schools, businesses, and homes turning their thermostats to under 68 so everyone had to wear sweaters all the time.
Next time. PLEASE include a "BARF ALERT"!!
Very hard to find something Carter is right about. Was he right about the deal he made with the Haitian military, that would have allowed them to stay in power? Was he right about his nuclear deal that he negotiated with the North Koreans, and which they promptly violated? And his estimation of Chavez and Hamas hardly has to be talked about.
The other problem this moron has is the economic change is evolutionary, not revolutionary. We did NOT one day suddenly decide to be an oil based economy. We will not suddenly one day magically quit needing oil. The solution is multifaceted and will take time. NOT, as this clown thinks simply a matter of issuing the appropriate bureaucratic decrees.
Carter was right about there being a malaise during his presidency.
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