It’s a good time to repost this.
Back before the 2000 election, when oil was around $33/barrel (inflation adjusted), candidate George W. Bush criticized the Clinton administration for the high price of gasoline. According to Bush, the solution to our energy woes was to import more oil.
For example, there was this:
Asked what he would do as president to address the price at the pump, Bush said he would confer with oil-producing allies and ask them to pump more crude. ‘I would use the capital my administration will earn with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, to convince them to open up the spigot,’ Bush said. ‘That’s where we will get immediate relief.’
and this:
In December 1999, in the first Republican primary debate, Mr. Bush said President Clinton “must jawbone OPEC members to lower prices.”
So, how well has Bush’s cunning plan worked out?
Oil prices reached a record close, surging above $104 after OPEC decided Wednesday to keep its production unchanged. The cartel ignored calls from President Bush to pump more oil into an ailing economy.
OPEC rebuffed its top consumer, arguing that the world was well supplied with oil and blaming financial speculators and mismanagement of the United States economy for the current high prices.
“Mismanagement of the United States economy.” Heh.
As a lame duck, President Bush may finally be starting to figure things out:
“America’s got to change its habits; we’ve got to get off oil,” President Bush said at a conference on renewable fuels. “Until we change our habits, there’s going to be more dependency on oil.”
Too bad this comes eight years too late.