Gerald Ford on Our Ever-Growing Oil Import Dependence

Since Gerald Ford's SOTU speech in 1975, what have we accomplished with regard to our country's reliance on imported oil?  Not much, unfortunately.  Instead, we're more dependent than ever on OPEC nations for this vital commodity.  As if that's not bad enough, we're also emitting more carbon dioxide than ever, in a world that's heating up far more rapidly than it was in 1975. And we're demonstrating absolutely no leadership on the world stage with regard to energy and environmental challenges. 

No, I don't agree with the production-slanted thrust of Gerald Ford's proposals, but at least he gave our oil dependency the attention it deserved. At least he recognized the need "to cut long-term consumption." And, at least he understood the need for shared sacrifice to solve a pressing national problem. 

Today, sadly, we're stuck with George W. Bush, the worst President in American history, who declares ominously that we are "addicted" to oil, yet does absolutely nothing to get us off that addiction.  Meanwhile, the polar ice caps melt, the polar bears drown, and unfriendly/authoritarian regimes roll on the floor laughing at the Bush Administration's utter unwillingness to deal with this issue. 

With that intro, here's Gerald Ford (may he rest in peace):

Economic disruptions we and others are experiencing stem in part from the fact that the world price of petroleum has quadrupled in the last year. But in all honesty, we cannot put all of the blame on the oil-exporting nations. We, the United States, are not blameless. Our growing dependence upon foreign sources has been adding to our vulnerability for years and years, and we did nothing to prepare ourselves for such an event as the embargo of 1973.

[...]

But this Nation and, in fact, the world must face the prospect of energy difficulties between now and 1985. This program will impose burdens on all of us with the aim of reducing our consumption of energy and increasing our production. Great attention has been paid to the considerations of fairness, and I can assure you that the burdens will not fall more harshly on those less able to bear them.

I am recommending a plan to make us invulnerable to cutoffs of foreign oil. It will require sacrifices, but it--and this is most important--it will work.

I have set the following national energy goals to assure that our future is as secure and as productive as our past:

First, we must reduce oil imports by 1 million barrels per day by the end of this year and by 2 million barrels per day by the end of 1977.

Second, we must end vulnerability to economic disruption by foreign suppliers by 1985.

Third, we must develop our energy technology and resources so that the United States has the ability to supply a significant share of the energy needs of the free world by the end of this century.

To attain these objectives, we need immediate action to cut imports. Unfortunately, in the short term there are only a limited number of actions which can increase domestic supply. I will press for all of them.

[...]

Increasing energy supplies is not enough. We must take additional steps to cut long-term consumption. I therefore propose to the Congress: legislation to make thermal efficiency standards mandatory for all new buildings in the United States; a new tax credit of up to $150 for those homeowners who install insulation equipment; the establishment of an energy conservation program to help low-income families purchase insulation supplies; legislation to modify and defer automotive pollution standards for 5 years, which will enable us to improve automobile gas mileage by 40 percent by 1980.

These proposals and actions, cumulatively, can reduce our dependence on foreign energy supplies from 3 to 5 million barrels per day by 1985. To make the United States invulnerable to foreign disruption, I propose standby emergency legislation and a strategic storage program of 1 billion barrels of oil for domestic needs and 300 million barrels for national defense purposes.

P.S. On a personal note, Gerald Ford's run for President in 1976 marked my first serious involvement in politics (at age 13).  As many of you know, I was a Teenage Republican at that time, in a world where the labels of "Republican" and "Democratic" did not mean what they mean today.  How did that Republican Party get taken over by the theocratic, neo-conservative, science-and-reality-denying right wing?  It's a long, sad story, and a topic for a different diary.  It's something to ponder, though, with the death of a moderate, sane centrist like Gerald Ford.

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