Americas Energy Policy The past 30 Years
Thirty years of Unfulfilled Promises
President Gerald R Ford 1975 – “I’m recommending a plan to make us invulnerable, to cut off foreign oil, it will require sacrifices, but it, and this is most important, it will work!”President Richard M Nixon 1974 – “Let this be our national goal, at the end of this decade, at the end of 1980, the U S will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes and to keep our transportation moving.”
President Gerald R Ford: 1975 – “We must reduce oil imports by 1 mill barrels per day be the end of this year and 2 mil barrels a day by the end of 1977, we must end vulnerability to economic disruptions by foreign suppliers by 1985.”
President Jimmy Carter 1979 – “Beginning this moment, this nation will never use world foreign oil that we did in 1977, NEVER. The generation won’t grow in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks, RIGHT NOW.”
President Richard Nixon 1972 – “By deregulating oil, we’ll come closer to achieving energy independence and help bring down the cost of gasoline and heating fuel.”
President George H W Bush 1988 – “And I’ll put incentives back into the domestic energy industry, where I know from personal experience, there is no security for the United States for further dependence on foreign oil.”
President William J Clinton 1998 – “Our overriding environmental challenge tonight is the worldwide problem of climate change, global warming, this past December America led the world to reach a historic agreement committing our nation to reducing green house gas emissions through market forces, new technologies, energy efficiency, we have it in our power to act, right here, right now.”
President George W Bush 2003 – “I have sent you a comprehensive energy plan to promote energy efficiency and conservation, to develop cleaner technology and to produce more energy at home. I have sent you clear skies legislation that mandates a 70% cut in air pollution from power plants over the next 15 years. “
The clip below is an endorsement of Barack Obama, but the substance actually shows each President listed above, actually quoting portions of their respective energy policies.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkB4GYN7GEM[/youtube]
President Jimmy carter created the US Department of Energy in 1977 and planned to end dependency on foreign oil in 8 years. This was VERY unpopular with Oil Companies. Carter was big on solar energy even installing them at the White House.
These oil companies then vowed to throw their money and power behind Ronald Regan. President Regan did not fill the US Oil Reserves but he did de-control oil prices, giving free reign to oil companies to set their own pricing. He created new subsidies for the oil companies who imported oil to the US, which also resulted in huge payments to radical terrorist countries. He did not give subsidies to non-petroleum energy developing companies.
Since Regan only supported big oil, he removed the solar panels from the Whitehouse and eliminated all tax credits for solar and other non-petroleum companies.
Reagan also sold weapons of mass destruction to Iraq and Iran which produced, a million people died from this resulting war and his ‘Reganomics’ created the largest American debt in recent history, (George W Bush excluded)
Oil company lobbyists paid our politicians to create the US Imported Oil Energy Policy.
Like Regan, both the Bush campaigns were funded by big oil companies, and everyone knows the Bush families have always had close ties to Saudi Arabia.
In 2005 the Bush Administration increased subsidies by $14 Billion dollars to companies that import foreign oil. After the subsidies were created, the Exxon CEO made $190,000.00 per day; and big oil companies are the highest profit company’s worldwide. By subsidizing oil companies, we line the pockets of oil company executives. Do we really need to subsidize them?
The true democracy is a representative form of government, where the needs of many outweigh the desires of a few profiteers!
Today, 70% of Americans disapprove of George Bush’s actions, 78% of Americans disapprove of Congress. Do politicians represent you? Is America really a democracy?
In December 2007, 82% of Americans wanted to repeal the oil company subsidies. House Bill H.R .6 passed by a wide margin but 40 Republican Senators blocked it from becoming law on December 13, 2007.
Former Senator John Edwards said it best “This is the great moral test of our generation. Are we actually going to leave this planet and our children? Why have we not addressed the issues of Climate Change and Global Warming? I’ll tell you why, no question about it Oil Companies, Gas Companies, Power Companies and the Lobbyists in Washington D.C. We have to have a President to stand up to these people. From my perspective the choices are between the status quo and change, and we need change in the worst kind of way in America.”
We have to have a president to stand up to these people. We all know our politicians speak with forked tongues.
We send our brave young children to die in oil related wars, clocked in the term of fighting terrorism, because we are addicted to foreign oil.
Chris Dodd, serving 26 years in the US Senate, said “Make no mistake, this war is not about getting rid of Saddam Hussein or democracy for Iraq, It is about OIL! If Iraq and Kuwait had no oil, we would never have sent our brave young soldiers to die there. If we had continued Carter’s plan to eliminate imported oil in 8 years, there would be no oil wars today. Brazil did, and they are now oil independent.”
Today, Exxon-Mobile, Chevron, Shell Oil and others are now moving into Iraq to begin taking over many of the Iraqi oil fields.
When politicians are obligated to a minority special interest group, they ignore majority opinion, and even wage unpopular bloody wars to support the lobbyist’s desires.
In 2007, our US National Debt skyrocketed to well over $9 TRILLION DOLLARS most of which to pay for the Iraq and the $14 Billion DOLLARS in oil tax subsidies. We’ve borrowed from our grandchildren, social security, and Billions of dollars from China, Japan and the oil rich OPEC nations, and other foreign governments!
What are our options? Solar, wind, tides, geothermal, and energy storage issues like batteries, compressed air, dams and hydrogen. Even nuclear energy should be considered, albeit is very expensive and relatively unsafe. We know we cannot count on fossil fuels – gas, coal, oil.
Albert Einstein once said “The thinking which created today’s problems is insufficient to solve them.”
Do we really think the politicians who created this energy problem over the past 30 years will solve it?
Did the election of 2006 in bringing Democrats to power in Congress solve anything?
The solution has to begin with average Americans, from baby-boomers to young Americans. We must take back our government, remove those politicians from office who neglect the will of the American people and start a grass-roots effort to change this country. We must end our corrupt energy petroleum politics!
Write your Congressional representatives:
https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Filed under: Big Oil
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