Filed under: Conservatism, Domestic Policy, Economy, Election 2008, Energy, Environment, Liberalism, News, Politics | Tags: Democrat Dirty Tricks, Democrat lies, Gas Prices, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, Obama, President Bush, Republicans
April 18, 1977 • President Jimmy Carter made energy policy the centerpiece of his administration. He declared that achieving energy independence was the “Moral equivalent of war”. Later that year he signed the law creating the United States Department of Energy to manage America’s energy crisis.
1978 • The Iranian revolution caused a shortfall in oil exports and prices doubled over the next couple of years. Carter, wearing a sweater on national television, urged Americans to turn down their thermostats.
July 15, 1979 • “Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 — never”, Carter declared. He put solar panels on the White House and proposed a $142 billion energy plan which would achieve energy independence by 1990. This plan included a solar bank to achieve the goal of 20% of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000, created a $20 billion Synfuels program. And he even began to cut back on Richard Nixon’s price controls on oil.
January, 1981 • Ronald Reagan, on the day be became president ended the remaining federal regulations on domestic oil supplies and prices, allowing oil prices for the first time since 1971 to fall and rise with world market levels. He removed Carter’s solar panels and in December 1985, he dismantled the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corp. What happened when all the governmental attempts to manage the energy supply ended? Oil prices dropped from their peak at the time of $37 per barrel in 1981 to $14 per barrel in 1986.
1991 • President George H.W. Bush ‘s strategy was “reducing our dependence on foreign oil.” This included a U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium in cooperation with the Big Three automakers to develop a lightweight battery system for electric vehicles, with a fuel efficient prototype car by 2004.
1992 • President Bill Clinton proposed a BTU tax on fossil fuels, creating a tax on natural gas, coal and nuclear power and a two times higher tax on crude oil, which would have cost the average family between $300 – $400 a year, and a plan to produce a prototype car that was 3X more fuel efficient by 2004.
2001 • George W. Bush introduced a comprehensive energy plan that allowed more drilling for oil and gas, new refineries, building nuclear power plants, revamping the U.S. electricity grid, and asked for $10 billion in tax breaks to encourage energy efficiency and alternative energy. Perhaps you remember the outrage of the Democrats in Congress about Cheney’s Energy Committee because the Vice President met with oil company executives to talk about energy. Congress rejected the energy plan.
2002 • Rejected.
2003 • Rejected.
August 10, 2005 • The Onion does an article: “Bush Vows to Eliminate U.S. Dependence on Oil By 4920”
July 31, 2008 • Barack Obama advises Americans that they can improve their gas mileage by keeping their tires properly inflated: “We could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups.” PowerLine’s John Hinderaker ran the numbers and suggested it would take about 11,308 years of proper inflation to equal all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling.
August 1, 2008 • Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, claiming that “I’m trying to save the planet”, again blocked, not only a vote on offshore drilling, but any debate on offshore drilling. She knows that if the issue is brought to the floor, it would pass, for many Democrats have started to shift their views. She quickly gavelled the session to an end and shut the chamber down as the Democrats departed for a five week vacation. Republicans turned the lights back on, and proceeded to attack the Democrats for leaving town without doing anything about lowering gas prices.
Republicans got the sound system working, and invited tourists in to watch the debate. They had flip charts and ordered in pizza. The talk-in was spontaneous. Mike Pence, R-Ind, said that as the House’s regular session neared it’s end, he and Tom Price, R-Ga, were talking about staging more than 100 5-minute speeches, when Price said if the House adjourned, “We should Just stay.” So they did.
The gallery closed on schedule at 4:30, and Representative Price finally called an end to the demonstration and led the group in an a capella rendition of “God Bless America”.
In Chapter 2, I will explain the Democrats’ position. In the meantime, consider just who it is that has blocked increasing our domestic energy supply for over 30 years. Just as they continue to do to this very day:
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