Energy Policy in the United States

This past week, after the appearance by President Bush at the Israeli Knesset referred to in the previous post, the President went hat in hand to see the Saudis and beg them to increase oil production in order to reduce gasoline prices in the United States. Of course, the answer was "no."

This is not an unexpected response. The Saudis have us over a barrel (pun intended) and have no reason to reduce the price of crude.

This is a result of the failure of our politicians over the years since World War II to adopt a sensible policy on energy.

In that period, we have had essentially two policies. From the end of the War until about 1972, the policy was to keep gasoline as cheap as possible by encouraging the use of foreign oil, which was then very cheap. The Texas Railroad Commission tried to support the price of oil ( and the domestic oil industry) by reducing production limits in Texas for about 20 years, but, inevitably, production in Texas declined, demand increased, and by 1972 the State could no longer be the "swing producer."

Then the "swing producer" became Saudi Arabia, and since then, our energy policy has essentially been begging the Saudis to keep the oil prices low. This has met with mixed success, depending upon what the Saudis needed from us.

The first policy led inevitably to the conditions that created the need for the second.

Neither of those are real policies. Our country acted as if the party would go on forever, and of course, parties always end. Now the party is over, and we are left to clean up after it. And we have to pay the band. That will not be cheap.

All colors of our political spectrum want to point fingers and blame the others. The fact is that we are all at fault, and pointing fingers now will only delay action. We cannot afford the delay.

Each side is going to have to reconsider positions taken in the past...decisions made without regard to the cost of and effect on energy production. Politicians playing "gotcha" aren't going to accomplish anything. Politicians trying to favor particular constituencies may well fail everyone else. We need to have people in elective office that will put partisan interests aside and make decisions based upon what is good for the country. I don't see any on the horizon.

Our political class has failed us for years, but we have also failed by electing people who make promises not backed by appropriate actions. It is time for a change, but who will act to make the right changes?

All I see now are empty promises.