He's trying to make a point that ours suck.
Belated appreciation for Jimmy Carter's energy vision
Posted on Tue, May. 30, 2006
BY JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE — As Jimmy Carter was introduced at a Mariners game last week and later stood to leave his box, fans gave the 39th president a warm ovation and shouted greetings.
When did you last hear of a politician NOT hearing from boo-birds at the ballpark?
Viewed as unlucky and/or over his head while in the White House, Carter has evolved into the most successful ex-president in American history.
He has helped Habitat for Humanity build houses, monitored elections, won a Nobel Peace Prize and written — by himself with a 5:30-8 a.m. routine each day — a series of earnest, best-selling books.
As Carter gets political again this year — son Jack is running for the U.S. Senate in Nevada — it's time to deliver a belated appreciation to a visionary policy of his administration.
Ronald Reagan is rightly credited with the strategy that won the Cold War and helped the Soviet empire to implode.
Carter was, however, far ahead of his time in attempting to construct an energy policy that would have liberated America from dependence on Middle East oil and vulnerability to Islamic extremism.
"When I took office, we were importing 8 million barrels of foreign oil a day," he said in an interview yesterday. "We reduced it by 2 million barrels by the time I left office.
"We are now back up to importing more than 12 million barrels a day. It is primarily because the Bush administration, and administrations that preceded it, refused to increase fuel-efficiency limits on cars and develop new energy sources."
In the late 1970s, the Carter administration set a goal of meeting 20 percent of the nation's energy needs by the year 2000 by means of alternative energy sources (wind, solar) and conservation.
The Department of Energy came into being. Fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks were increased. Experimental solar panels were installed on the White House roof.
Carter took a lot of guff. Then-Gov. Dixy Lee Ray — Washington's only really awful governor of the past half-century — ridiculed Carter for wearing a sweater during an energy speech.
Carter was unmistakably delivering a message as he talked at the ball game.
"I'll give you a practical example," he said. "The Bush administration's policies have almost driven Ford and General Motors into bankruptcy. Japanese, Korean and European manufacturers have improved mileage standards for their vehicles. We've encouraged Detroit to build Hummers."
Oil dependence has forced the United States to turn toward countries ruled by dictatorial regimes, Carter said, and turn away from its own ideals.
"Increasingly, we are at the mercy of regimes that are unsavory," he said. "We are not in a position to put pressure on them on human rights and democracy because we are so dependent."
Jack Carter, a businessman running an uphill race against Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, completed his father's point.
"It is not a hopeless case: We just need a change in administrations and who controls Congress," said the younger Carter.
President Bush at least is starting to talk the talk. A small increase in fuel efficiency standards is in the offing. And Bush recently spoke at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
A couple of weeks before Bush's appearance was announced, however, the Colorado-based laboratory laid off 32 scientists and technicians. A hasty transfer of $5 million by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman restored the jobs in time to avoid presidential embarrassment.
And, last week, the House of Representatives again voted to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska.
A past visitor to the refuge, Jimmy Carter has passionately opposed drilling on grounds that it would defile America's greatest wilderness and endanger wildlife populations.
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, last week sneered at the notion that the United States should kick its dependence on fossil fuels.
"Let's everybody buy a bicycle," Young shouted. "Let's all buy a bicycle and break our leg, and let's go back to being China. And, by the way, who's the largest consumer of automobiles today? It's China, not us, China. They say (the Chinese) don't burn much fuel. They burn over 7 billion barrels of oil a year."
What kind of clowns are making our energy policy?
a) China burns 7 million barrels of oil a day, which adds up to about 2.5 billion barrels a year, not 7 billion; b) China is the world's third-largest automobile market, not its largest; and c) We can't sell American cars in China because they don't meet the Middle Kingdom's fuel-efficiency standards.
The country should listen to reason, not bluster, and get serious about policies that Carter suggested 30 years ago.
Connelly writes for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
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