Major Energy Failure

One of Mr. Bush’s major failures is his lack of leadership in reducing the US dependency on foreign oil. He has failed to make any positive change to this situation; in fact as we watch oil prices rise to unprecedented levels we are even more dependant on foreign oil than when he entered office.

He has offered one ineffective solution; to drill in the Alaska wilderness. Should this ever happen, it will not make a dent in our dependency on oil. Mostly his plan would just ruin some wilderness and not add to national security. His so called energy plan is just more of the same and has not solved any of our problems. Innovation on the scale of the Apollo project is what it will take to get us out of this hole, not just rehashing the status quo.

If he was truly concerned about our national security he would be making sure that we conserve more energy like President Carter did so long ago. An unpopular move, but very effective. Mr. Bush could have supported forcing car companies to produce vehicles that are more fuel efficient. But instead he took the lead of his VP who said that energy conservation was a waste of time and effort. They are out of touch with reality on this topic.

Not being drenched in the profits from oil, I see it a bit different. If all vehicles were required to increase their fuel efficiency by just five miles per gallon we would not need to drill in Alaska and we could stop importing so much foreign oil. The collective cry from the car companies about how this is impossible or too costly can only be characterized as a specious argument. The car companies have said the same thing about every new innovation they have been forced to adopt since headlights. Detroit obviously does not get it, that is why we need strong competent leadership in the White House to get us out of this worsening situation. Mr. Bush’s lack of leadership in this area has only made things worse.

If the President had decided to really address national security rather than starting an Iraqi revenge war that we did not need (unless you believed his lies) we could have pored those hundreds of billions into alternative energy research. That much money applied to this kind of research would have made this nation much less dependant on oil and much more secure. It would have created jobs; made the US a leader again in this kind of research and our nation would be less dependant on oil, no matter where it comes from.

How has invading Iraq solved any of our problems? His war has just helped push the price of oil higher and made us less secure. We are no closer to solving this problem now than when he entered office; in fact we are worse off.

The Republican lead Congress is much more interested in grand standing rather than solving any problems and unfortunately for the future of this nation, the President has failed miserably at producing any real solution to this nation’s energy crisis.