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Carter was right on energy all along
Capital Times ^ | 2-8-06 | Bill Berry

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


TOPICS: Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: angrymrpeanut; barforama; energy; jimmycarter; jimmycrapper; killerrabbit; madison; malaise; meow; moralequivalentofwar; peanutflavoredbile; wisconsin
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"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.

1 posted on 02/08/2006 4:52:24 PM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson

Missing the BARF warning?


2 posted on 02/08/2006 4:54:08 PM PST by Triggerhippie (Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.)
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To: SJackson
Not only -- that his effort to avoid the war that would have re-secured the embassy in Tehran doomed us to the current global roiling of terror.
3 posted on 02/08/2006 4:54:17 PM PST by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
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To: SJackson

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!


4 posted on 02/08/2006 4:54:39 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero

don't forget to wear your sweater!


5 posted on 02/08/2006 4:55:46 PM PST by Rakkasan1 (Muslims pray to Allah, Allah prays to Chuck Norris.)
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To: SJackson

You give him too much credit. He didn't even realize it was the first battle. I still don't think he realizes it.


6 posted on 02/08/2006 4:55:59 PM PST by jazusamo (A Progressive is only a Socialist in a transparent disguise.)
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To: SJackson

I remember the gas lines when Jimma was President. That is not an accomplishment. I am also not sure what he accomplished with energy.


7 posted on 02/08/2006 4:56:47 PM PST by freekitty
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To: Cicero
Turn down the thermostat and wear a sweater.

Wonder how much oil we'd save if we banned heaters and air conditioning in cars.

8 posted on 02/08/2006 4:57:11 PM PST by SJackson ("Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protesters in Ramallah)
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To: Triggerhippie
Missing the BARF warning?

Well considering the article is titled "Carter was right...", it would be redundant.

9 posted on 02/08/2006 4:58:34 PM PST by Always Right
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To: SJackson
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.

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!!

10 posted on 02/08/2006 4:59:26 PM PST by CROSSHIGHWAYMAN (expell the fat arrogant carcasses of Congress)
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To: SJackson

carter has been wrong on EVERYTHING.


11 posted on 02/08/2006 4:59:48 PM PST by pipecorp (Let's have a CRUSADE! , the muslims never stopped. a 2010 useless reply odyssey.)
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To: SJackson
Nonsense.

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

12 posted on 02/08/2006 4:59:53 PM PST by Servant of the 9 (Trust Me)
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To: SJackson
One of the stupidest articles I have ever read concerning this issue.

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.

13 posted on 02/08/2006 4:59:54 PM PST by frankiep
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To: freekitty
I remember the gas lines when Jimma was President. That is not an accomplishment. I am also not sure what he accomplished with energy.

Oh don't forget schools, businesses, and homes turning their thermostats to under 68 so everyone had to wear sweaters all the time.

14 posted on 02/08/2006 4:59:58 PM PST by Always Right
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To: SJackson

Next time. PLEASE include a "BARF ALERT"!!


15 posted on 02/08/2006 5:00:37 PM PST by GeorgeW23225 ("Grow your own dope. Plant a liberal")
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To: SJackson

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.


16 posted on 02/08/2006 5:01:42 PM PST by popdonnelly
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To: Cicero
At this point in our history,I am not willing to consider that Carter was right about ANYTHING.If history teaches us anything,it is the man was beyond inept and possibly deliberately worked against the best interests of the country.I look forward to hearing his eulogy.
17 posted on 02/08/2006 5:01:50 PM PST by Farmer Dean (Every time a toilet flushes,another liberal gets his brains.)
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To: SJackson
What a complete and utter ignorant fool this author is. Guess no one pointed out to this loser that Canada has the world largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia. The USA itself has lots of oil. The problem is NOT a lack of oil, it is that a LOT of the oil is too expensive to be economically extracted and marketed. It is not the addiction to oil that is the problem, the problem is we are addicted to CHEAP Middle East oil. This loser doesn't seem to realize that all his fantasies of "renewable energy" are simply economically unfeasible. They simply cannot be made to work as economically or as efficiently as source of energy as oil

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.

18 posted on 02/08/2006 5:02:02 PM PST by MNJohnnie ("Vote Democrat-We are the party of reactionary inertia".)
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To: SJackson

Carter was right about there being a malaise during his presidency.


19 posted on 02/08/2006 5:03:32 PM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: SJackson; All
Besides Cubans in Angola & Yemen, the Soviets in Afghanistan, 23% interest rates, gas lines and shortages, and a host of other maladies, I remember Wee Jimmy ( like a real President, only smaller... ) for this:


Desert One

20 posted on 02/08/2006 5:03:42 PM PST by backhoe
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