I'm Still Mad, Eddie

And Getting Madder by the Day

Back in the late 1970s, during the last oil "crisis" and Jimmy Carter was more or less in charge, his policies were much like our current Democrats' policies. Nothing but talk and CAFE standards and "windfall" profits taxes and price controls on domestic production. Remember MEOW? That stands for Carter's moral equivalent of war. That war was fought much like our current Democrats would fight any war: surrender.

During those days we had a Texan named Eddie Chiles who ran a bunch of radio and TV ads about the energy policies of the government. They all started out with "I'm mad." They were very good and told the truth about the effects of the misguided and harmful government policies.

Soon, bumper stickers started showing up all over Texas and Eastern New Mexico: "I'm Mad Too, Eddie." They were ubiquitous in the oil patch.

(Other favorites during those days were: "Let the Bastards Freeze to Death in the Dark" and "Please Don't Tell My Mom I work in the Oil Patch; She Still Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse." That first one may be predictive: I understand there may be real problems in the northeast with fuel oil this winter, and the authorities are concerned many might go without heat. That would be bad, indeed.)

Now, here we are, thirty years later, and nothing has been done to solve the problem of reliance on foreign oil.

Back then we did not have the technology to drill on the Outer Continental Shelf as we do now. We did not have the technology to drill in sensitive places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge like we do now. As a result, back then there were no real alternatives to foreign oil but coal, nuclear, natural gas, and the far out hope that someday some new technologies would come along. What did we actually do? We built some coal and natural gas plants, but abandoned the cleanest and most efficient source of energy: nuclear.

Now the crisis is back on the front pages, after we have spent thirty years sending our dollars to foreigners for their oil. Trillions of dollars. Now we are still sending hundreds of millions of dollars to foreigners every year.

The cost of all of this is not just paying more for gasoline. It also creates a very serious national security problem. A lot of the folks that are holding those dollars are not exactly trusted friends of ours, and do not necessarily have our interests at heart.

This means we MUST address the problem now. We do not have the luxury of putting it off. We also do not have the luxury of picking and choosing our desired domestic energy sources. They must all be put on the table. NOW!

That means we must invest in wind, solar, fuel cell, coal, oil shale, oil sands, geothermal, ANWR oil and gas, outer continental shelf oil and gas, and whatever else someone can dream up that will work. Picking and choosing among those is just silly. We should be doing ALL of it. Let the free markets pick the winners.

There are those that say that production from ANWR or the OCS would be so far off that there is no use doing it. They are wrong. Actually, we would already have 2 million barrels a day on stream from ANWR if Bill Clinton had not vetoed the bill authorizing it some years ago. He said then that it would take too long to do any good. How right was he? That would have driven down oil prices. It will take only two or three years to start getting that oil onstream, more for the OCS.

What are our politicians doing? Wringing their hands and pointing fingers. Both Presidential candidates act like they don't really want to discuss the problem. Others trot out the same old MEOW stuff from the Carter years. When a group of Republican Congressmen tried to force the House to debate energy, the Speaker adjourned the House and had the lights and microphones turned off. The Democratic leadership is afraid to address the issue. That group of Republicans stayed for a while to make a point, but didn't persevere. No guts, no glory.

How bad can it get? Stay tuned. It will get a lot worse. Maybe OPEC will let the price go down some to make it less painful.

That is why I'm still mad, and getting madder.