Seems like it was just yesterday when the same fools who were browbeating the Big Three were browbeating Big Oil. All the energy problems in the world were laid at their feet by an indignant group of politicians. Then the people and even the media began to reject that idea.
Undismayed the fools turned their guns on evil speculators. Greed drove up the oil price and by golly Dick Durbin was going to get to the bottom of it. Then he found out that much of the oil trading was done in his home state and they said, lay it on us, we’ll just move to London. All we need is a phone and a computer, we can be gone tomorrow. Dick started to move a little slower on his plan to regulate futures trading. Poof, it all just went away.
Then the offshore drilling issue hit. Eighty five percent of the public was for it. Obama was against it , then he was for it, and now he will be against it again. Sound like John Kerry.
Is it me or is Washington a prime example of adult ADD. When something goes wrong, find someone to blame, if that fails, try someone else, meantime do nothing and the problem may go away. That’s OK, but chances are the problem may come back again and it might be worse next time.
This 2008 example is why we don’t have energy independence and never will in this country. Something else comes along to distract us.
Every time the energy problem comes back it is worse. Next time there may be no time. All Washington does anymore is go around and urinate on problems. They never whiz enough to put out the fire, just enough to dowse it a bit. Then it’s on to the next fire.
In the meantime they light a few fires like old Barney Frank and Chris Dodd did with the mortgage crisis. But, there is always someone to bring in and rake over the coals, like Greenspan. Got to keep the fires burning or we don’t need urination experts.
Hope all is well Bill. I have been reading your blog, but have not had much to say these days. For me, the energy issue is still the issue even though prices have come way down, but suspect that will not continue to be the case until the next time the terrorist bomb some oil assets. In the mean time, I guess we continue to do nothing and wait until it’s too late and we’ll bring in the bad oil company’s to bad mouth them again.
You wrote: <<Is it me or is Washington a prime example of adult ADD. >>.
Politicians in Washington (and elsewhere) reflect the constituents they serve. The adult ADD you disparage is not only the fault of the politicians but the public they serve. It is we who flutter about, here and there, like the feather in the wind in "Forrest Gump".
When gas cost $4 a gallon, it was "all hands on deck" to deal with the crisis. Now, less than a few months later, gas costs less than $2 a gallon and everyone is back in their SUVs… crisis resolved. ADD indeed, but it is the American public, not the politicians, that are afflicted.
Whether you want to believe it or not, President-Elect Obama has a long-term view of fixing our current energy insecurity. He knows that one of the best ways to attack our greatest national security challenge is to push the American economy towards energy independence. Fossil fuels are only our past and our immediate present. At best, they will only provide a bridge to the future as we do the urgent work to convert our energy infrastructure from one that is oil-based to a diversified base of natural gas, wind, solar, clean coal, domestic oil, perhaps nuclear (if we can solve the waste issue…) and other things we haven’t dreamed of yet. American jobs will be created by the private sector as we modernize and expand our electical grid and as we create the technologies that we will export to power the world cleanly. Not all of these technologies exist today but we have to work on them in order to be safer and more prosperous in the 21st century.
Most institutions in our country are short-term oriented. Individuals and families tend to focus on short-term issues like paying the mortgage and putting food on the table. "The market" is focused on today’s unemployment numbers and thinks ahead only to next quarter’s results. Our national government is the entity that can, and should, be looking out for the long-term interests of the country. Over the past 20-30 years, we’ve tried letting the unfettered markets take us wherever they wish. And we are in a big hole as a result. It’s kind of a nice hole, I’ll grant you… what with all the wide-screen plasma TVs, iPods and Hummers, but it’s still a hole.
The American people elected someone that they thought might change this short-term, selfish mindset. Now we will see if the American people can live up to their votes.
Yes, Chris, Obama has a plan. One reader wrote in an earlier article that you can confort your family with the last government issued log before you all freeze or start burning the furniture. Much like a belief in Santa, I have outgrown my belief in a magic energy solution.