Today, in the Democrats' weekly radio address, Sen. Bill Nelson (FL) accused President Bush of acknowledging America's "oil addiction" but refusing to do anything about it. Nelson noted correctly that "[t]he administration's emphasis is on drilling, a strategy many experts say won't make a dent in the U.S. oil problem," since the United States has only 3% of world oil reserves but consumes nearly 25%. As Nelson says, with 100% accuracy, "We cannot drill our way out of this problem."So, why are we in a situation where oil prices are at $75 per barrel and gasoline has pushed past $3 per gallon in many parts of the country, possibly heading towards $4 per gallon? And is all this the Republicans' fault?
Short answers: 1) we're in this crisis because we have completely failed to adopt a serious energy policy in this country that REDUCES OUR CONSUMPTION of oil; 2) specifically, our Republican "leadership" has completely refused to focus on reducing transportation demand for oil, even though - as Sen. Nelson said today - "[w]e have the technology to raise the mileage standard for all passenger vehicles to at least 40 miles per gallon; 3) Republicans have been utterly pig-headed and idiotic to focus on the one thing that definitely will NOT get us off our oil addiction - attempting to jack up U.S. oil production; and 4) the Republicans' obsession with opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which could potentially produce maybe ONE million barrels per day of oil out of TWENTY million barrels per day of total U.S. oil consumption, is actually WORSE than idiocy when you consider that Republicans are overwhelmingly the beneficiaries of contributions from the oil and gas industry.
So, the short answer is this: there's plenty of blame to go around, but YES, $4 per gallon gasoline is largely the Republicans fault. In fairness, the Democrats haven't been wonderful on this issue either, but they've been better than the Republicans, that's for damn sure! However, Republicans are the ones in power, and they're the ones who have prevented any serious U.S. energy policy since they took power in 2001. Even after 9/11, in which 15 of 19 hijackers came from #1 world's oil exporter, our great friend Saudi Arabia, the Republicans did nothing to get us off our oil addiction. Gee, I wonder why THAT is. You think it might have something to do with point #4 above? If not, review the history of the top-secret Cheney Energy Task Force. Case closed.
First, the Bush administration quickly after coming into office, pulled the US out of the Kyoto Proctocol. Suggesting the problem had not been studied enough. Into this void of leadership, more than 200 mayors have signed on to Kyoto.
Second, after 9/11 where the President had a unique oppoturnity to call for conservation and sacrifice on behalf of the American citizenry. What did he do? He called on Americans to go shopping.
Third, when Bush has addressed the problem of oil dependence his solution of hydrogen fuels is decades away. Instead of proposing an increase of fuel economy standards which would have an immediate effect. This would save more oil than is estimated to be in the entire Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.
Fourth, the invasion of Iraq, far from paying for itself, has been a catalyst for rising oil prices. The instablity there also threatens supplies in Saudia Arabia. Witness the recent terrorist attack there.
Fifth, the failure to engage Iran back in 2003 has given them a petro trump card in the now much more urgent over nuclear weapons.
Finally, our energy policy has been largely government handouts to the richest oil companies. Of course, we don't know the details because former oil CEO turned VP Cheney has (as Lowell has mentioned)kept these records secrets.
Now the Democrats have not offered a comprehensive alternative, but for the last 5 years we have been out of power.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-saunders/the-only-campaign-ad-the-_b_19582.html
Cheers,
Ajacied