$130 Oil Clinches It: Bush Really Is The Worst President Ever

As Congress holds panicked hearings to figure out what to do about the oil crisis--and, yes, it's now a full-blown crisis--it's worth stepping back and asking who really is most to blame. The answer shouldn't surprise anyone: George W. Bush.

True, the US blew its first opportunity to assemble an intelligent energy policy a quarter-century ago, when the 1970's oil crisis eased and early forays into sustainable energy were abandoned with the return to $20 oil. But by the end of the Clinton administration, the country was, slowly but surely, headed in the right direction again.

A Gore administration would have had to go far further--increasing incentives for the private sector to develop sustainable energy technologies, decreasing or eliminating incentives to waste energy, offering tax breaks for efficient cars, etc. But it seems safe to assume that President Gore wouldn't have ignored the conclusions of the 2005 Hirsch Report and hundreds of other early warning signs, all of which suggested that today's crisis was inevitable.

By the way, the author of the Hirsch report, Robert Hirsch, stopped by CNBC yesterday to update his conclusions. You can read his remarks here, but here's a summary:

* The problem is massive.
* New technologies that can extract oil from sand, etc., will take at least 10-20 years to bring to full-scale production (and, therefore, begin to alleviate the crisis)
* Get ready for $15 gas (yes, $15), oil rationing, and crippled economies.

Meanwhile, the best responses our government (including the Dems) has come up with are 1) suing OPEC, 2) regulating commodities traders to deter "speculation", 3) drilling in ANWR, 4) begging OPEC to open taps, 5) offering tax breaks for folks who buy 6,000+ pound cars.

Should we lay all this at Bush's feet? Not all, but most. With respect to energy policy, the Bush administration's free-market gospel has, at best, caused us to lose another 8 years that could have been spent encouraging the private sector and American citizens to solve this problem. Oil is a finite resource, and the majority of it is under the control of people who hate our guts. So it's hard to argue that the current situation was unforeseeable.

Combine $130 oil--sorry, $132, up $2 since I started writing--with Iraq, government-sponsored torture, alienation of the rest of the world, and all those other Bush administration contributions to U.S. national pride, and the Worst President Ever argument gets stronger all the time.

See Also:
Peak Oil Man Scares Bejesus Out of CNBC Viewers With Tales of $15 Oil
Oil Man T. Boone Pickens: Oil Ain't Going Nowhere But $150

Follow Henry Blodget on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hblodget

Comments

[seawolf77]

To blame W for this is a bit disengenous. Yes he is a moron and his public speaking skills would embaress a large high school's class president, but the Iraq war is a sypmtom of high prices, not the cause. Oil is simple getting more scarce and harder to produce. That's it. No dollar, no speculation, no war, no Enron loophole. 200 years ago we used whale oil. As we killed more and more whales, they got scarce and harder to find. You had to stay at sea longer, go out further, start settling for less and less profit even as prices soared. In the end we almost hunted them to extinction, but at the beginning whaling was a very profitable and popular profession. Ditto oil. W secured oil reserves for another generation of Americans by lying to them so as not to insult their fake moral sensibilities. Now you have the public clamoring to leave the place that has all the oil. America is living in this strange deluded Twilight Zone. We got what we wanted. Someone to go and steal the crack so we don't have to pay the true cost which believe it or not is a lot higher. Governments all over the world distort the price of energy, that is why a gallon costs $10 bucks in the Netherlands and .21 cents in Venezuela. Who knows what the stuff is really worth. Look at the markets. They are telling you. MORE!!!!!!!!!!

[libertron]

Please don't pretend that Al Gore would want lower fuel prices for us. The eco-whackos that nearly control the Dem party secretly love these prices and would prefer that we had $9 gas like in the EU.

[Cathexis]

"Eco whackos" ... heh heh ... denial can be so droll. The nerve of those people ... wnating to breathe clean air and drink uncontaminated water! Don't they know how that will hamstring Business?!?

Anyway, you're right: Mr Gore would not want lower gasoline prices for us. He WOULD want lower, sustainable, non-harmful *energy* costs for us. And he WOULD want intelligent (as opposed to wasteful) use and widespread conservati­on/recycli­ng of resources.

Huge difference, that. HTH.

[avraamjack]

.
The oil and housing crises are the result of incorporating into policy an excessive respect for Adam Smith.
.
.

[FreedomCorpse]

Henry, you're spot on. We tried to tell the right wingers that the bush administration is not a member of the conservative party but only play one on TV but they never listen except to the voices in their own heads...those voices are the 40 years of 'political messages' that have been implanted in their minds like seeds of ignorance that have taken full bloom. The democratic party is only slightly less bad.

[tald311]

I blame washington. Lack of leadership for the past 16 years. yes 16 years. The Clintons knew about all this crap - Ben Ladin, end of oil, the threats in the middle east from Iran and did NOTHING. Screw her for wanting to be our next leader.

As for Bush / Cheney - They sold us out for their own greed and the profits of there 'friends'.
Wake up America. I work for a good man who supports Bush and I look at him and say - can you not see what they are doing?

They have never cared about the People. Not Bush, not Bill and not Hillary. McCain might have. I place my hope in Obama, but even that is slim.

[FreedomCorpse]

agreed. That's why my opinion of Gore has dropped to spitoon level. They did nothing for all the time they held the 'reigns' of power and then come up with nonsensical 'solutions' to their utter failure when they are just collecting big bucks from nefarious firms post-elect­ed-office.

[seawolf77]

What could he do? Oil was cheap. No one cared about climate change. Blaming the canary in the coal mine for the explosion is not smart. Next time you'll listen to him.

[MilwaukeeDan]

Mr. Blodget, what this country needs(and won't get) is a radical change in direction and leadership. There was a chance back in the early 1990s, the Soviet Union had collapsed, and we had a chance to bring peace to the world(we were the only power standing) IF we wanted to treat others as equals, and talk to people, negotiate. But no, we kept looking for new enemies and never really ended the cold war(notice NATO moving eastward) with Russia. There was no piece dividend. We wanted to build an Empire that looked like us(with a McDonalds and Taco Bell in every city of the world). The Bush administrations actions exposed to the world who we really are(not that Vietnam didn't), it's just most forgot. Blame PNAC, but mainly blame the government and the citizens who elect them. A re-tread like McCain is the best we have? I have said this many times, the only way this country will change is if we go through some very tough economic times like Russia after the Soveit Unions collapse or the Great Depression. When Americans feel it in their wallets and in their stomachs, they might do something, until then, status quo.

[WIpatriot]

Spot on, Dan!

[bmora]

The fall of the dollar, I imagine, also has a lot to do with it. All of the blame for that situation can be easily attributable to the Bush regulatory, monetary and fiscal policies.

[RoloTomassi]

Enough of this Peak Oil justification BS; most of us know in our gut that this is price/supply manipulation, plain and simple.

Thanks to vippy for bringing this to light:

"There"s a few hedge fund managers out there who are masters at knowing how to exploit the peak [oil] theories and hot buttons of supply and demand and by making bold predictions of shocking price advancements to come, they only add more fuel to the bullish fire in a sort of self fulfilling prophecy." National Gas Week, Sept. 5, 2005

Full story here:

http://www.star-telegram.com/ed_wallace/story/651928.html

Contact your congressman NOW.

[vippy]

I don't know what it is. People will not read and they keep harping about the same old thing
that the value of the dollar along with Peak Oil is the culprit of these exhorbitant gas prices.
Enough when the media is trying to point us into the wrong direction but it does not make sense.
High oil prices would lessen the direct operating profit for the oil companies so that can't be it.
When our oil prices go up because we have a hurricane approaching in Florida, the whole world
pays more. When our dollar falls, the Europeans are paying the same price, so that does not make sense. And all along congress is the culprit but they DO NOTHING!
People, write to your congressman/woman and demand they reign in the Hedge Funds and put an
end to the future's market. Let us trade oil with supply and demand as in reality, rather than
picking a fictitious number on paper and oil never gets delivered. It is UNFAIR and UNETHICAL!

[seawolf77]

You have no idea what you are talking about. When a speculator goes long oil another speculator has to go short. The 2 have to balance. Believe it or not there are a large # of people who STILL believe the price is going to drop. Companies are buying up future oil becasue they have a fiduciary responsibiliy to shareholders to make as much money as possible, and companies think oil is cheap now. Speculators are like a flea on a dog. They seem alot bigger than they are when the dog is scratching.

[outnow]

ICE, ICE ICE. The iceman cometh! Yes, this "dark" exchange is the REAL reason for high oil prices. The bottle necks that crimp our supply are intentionally placed there by compliant politicians like Bush and the rubber-stamp Congress to "help" Enron. The "ICE" is the "International Commodities Exchange" which is offshore and intentionally exempt from oversight. Ironically, ICE is hooked up to the New York Exchange computers for easy trading.

The Iraq War is yet another "bottleneck" in the world's oil supply. Originally a gambit to "privatize" the oil supplies it is now used to crimp the supply. This is a win-win for oil and oil services companies that control our government.If you can't steal something, you can still control the market. Unless and until the people of the US demand an end to the monopolies artificially created and manipulated by the GOP, the country is doomed.

[seawolf77]

Oh you are ripe. You are bathing in the kool aid. Doesn't anyone notice that you are now purple. Oil is getting more expensive ....drum roll please.....because it is getting more and more expensive to get the stuff. To find the stuff. To move the stuff. To refine the stuff. Period. For all you Jesus freaks that brought us George W Bush you just got what you wanted. The tribulation has begun. Hold on tight because it will be a white knuckle ride. The Republican lemmings who believe every word that comes out of that man's mouth is pure gold will get what they deserve. Ruin.

[Bobotheclown]

It's not enough to assign "worst" labels to people we don't like and then sit back and feel like our expression of outrage has helped anything. Anyone with children knows the dark feeling of impending disaster that grows everyday as these predictable crises' move along their predictable courses. If you think electing a democratic president in a few months is going to solve this you are mistaken. The problems that lay before us are almost unimaginable and no political leader yet grasps the seriousness of what we are going to have to go through. We have an obligation to provide a world for our children that is survivable. Twice in the last century the responsible generation failed and their children suffered world wars, each worse than the one before. If we don't solve this one way fate will solve it another. And great solutions require great political will and a great electorate that is wise enough to act in the common good. Look around. Do you see more solutions or more problems out there?

[Aaror]

Don't worry, war already started, we lost...
Don't believe me? How much have we spent on Iraq and Afganistan? How did Sol-U fall (Russia invaded Afganistan, 10 years later they fell). Why is the dollar falling? We can't win a war with a third world nation. I mean, this is Afganistan, when we bombed the Taliban back into the stone age we only destroyed about 2 weeks of progress...
Soon the dollar will be toilet paper, and the world will figure out that China and the EU are the superpower nations. At that point, the real question is whether the US will turn into a dictatorship or not, and will we nuke someone just to show how tough we are or not? If we do the latter, expect a new type of world war (the world vs the US). I think the US could successfully destroy the world, so I hope that war doesn't start...

[noneIn2008]

The number one incentive to stop wasting energy is to repeal the second law of thermodynamics. This is big businesses dirty little secret that few will discuss. This law results in us wasting over 80% of our energy. It directly requires limiting the efficiency of our power plants, cars and heating. It is time to expose this sham.

[joebaggadonuts]

Not funny.

[Robert59]

Actually, what you wrote was pretty funny. What you didn't point out is there are technologies to increase efficiency of power plants. Take coal, extract the hydrogen, and use it to power plants. Ditto with solar thermal. Use the heat it generates to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water. Use that hydrogen to power plants. And electric cars are a hell of a lot more efficient than gasoline.

But we'd rather invest in ethanol which has 70% of the BTUs as gasoline and less than half of diesel. Now that's smart public policy, not!

And how about throwing in some conservation? Insulated concrete for walls. Rainwater runoff collection systems. Geothermal to cut down utility consumption. Run water and air lines 6 feet underground, constant temperature and use a heat pump to raise the air temp a few degrees and less energy to heat your water.

[dadw5boys]

Sorry but Bush being a horrible President has nothing to do with gas prices. Sure the Republicans and their destruction of the regulations that prevented this CHURNING OF OIL FURTURES thru swaps and exchanges with other holders causes the oil prices to be atrificially inflated.

Just like Enron was selling electric contracts within it's own power structure to jack up the prices artifically the oil prices are being used the same way but with different owners.
Each swap increases the price of the oil contracts.

Bush can't write laws and the Congress has a few more Republicans to dump before they can re-regulate the financial indusrty!!!!!!!
Bush still sucks for starting a war that had nothing to do with 9/11.

[djthedj]

"Sorry but Bush being a horrible President has nothing to do with gas prices. "

Sorry, but boy are you wrong! War and constant threats of more war in the middle east have a lot to do with it and so does the running up of $10 trillion in debt and frantic printing of hundreds of billions of unbacked dollars that has destroyed the dollar. Both of these are Bush's fault.

[Robert59]

That's where you're wrong. As the nation's leader he sets the vision. His vision went from nothing to the long war. And you don't think he has influence over the laws that are written. Congress until last year was held by the Republicans. He had plenty of opportunities to chart us on a different course.

What he's done is break this country. He grew the economy 3.5 trillion dollars by wracking up 12 trillion in debt (federal and credit card).

The latest attempt to revive the economy, the 160 billion being rebated back to us, is idiotic. It wasn't surplus money, but borrowed money, and because we're a nation so deep in hock, it will be spent paying off old debt.

A visionary president would have invested in the country. Start by giving the car companies money to retool producing only hybrids and electric cars. Spend more money building massive solar thermal and wind turbine plants in the southwest and the Great Plains. Finish constructing the clean coal plants that aren't done because Congress is too shortsighted to come up with another billion or two dollars to pay for their cost overruns.

Instead we get the worst president whose answer is to drill in ANWR (16 billion barrels available in 10 years which would meet less than 2 years of our oil needs) or build more refineries (which the oil industry opposes) .

He is the worst president ever.

[dadw5boys]

DEREGULATION IN THE BANKING AND INSURANCE INDUSTRYS WERE A FEW OF THE THINGS REGEAN AND THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS PUSHED THRU!

That is where Enron and other were testing the water on how far they could go before any regulations would kick in.
The same thing with Hedge Funds no one was checking to see if these Hedge Funds actually had money backing them or just I OWE U'S.

Paper work that show millions in funds that do not exist except on paper allows Hedge Funds to invest and profit from stocks us buying on margin without setting up a margin account. That is why Buffet was so angery and would not drop his rates to re insure these funds they should never have been insured by anyone ever. Many of these funds were frauds and he would not accept their face value he wanted to see the actual deposits that is why Bear and Sterns did not seek insurance from Buffet.

[MajorKong]

I recall being told back in 2000 that we needed to elect an oil man to the White House so that he could keep the price down. How's that working out so far?

[joebaggadonuts]

Oh, and do you remember how we needed to elect him to restore faith and respect in the presidency?
LOL.

[outnow]

Don't forget that so many Americans wanted to have that drink with an alcoholic who had found God to quit drinking. That softer and easier way is now costing people their jobs and their homes. Those "values voters" supported "family values" by letting the wolf inside their doors. It is all about money in the GOP. I am so sick about hearing about who is someone's minister and all that crap. When Karl Marx said that religion is the opiate of the masses he was right on target about the manipulation of the starving masses so that the wealthy could continue using fear and guilt and the hierarchy of the churches to deliver more money to the very wealthy while the poor went hungry.

[knosiswar]

Henry, Bush isn't to BLAME, he is only a cheerleader that was recruited to be the head puppet in charge and will go away just as easily into obscurity while the puppet masters that have been pulling his strings will continue to profit from his ignorance and the cultivated ignorance of the uneducated mass of people who voted him into office in the first place. And the other group that is to blame are people like you who conveniently pick on the whipping boy instead of persueing the real traitors, like Kissinger and the CABAL he represents that were in neck deep when this operation started taking shape. Bush is the ultimate fall guy who couldn't balance a check book and didn't even have a job until his late 30's. And you and your fellow 'journalists' seem to be equally challenged in rooting out the puppet masters. Do some WORK.

[WIpatriot]

Zing! True dat.

[Sundialsvc4]

"Any civil officer ... SHALL BE impeached ..."

[Sumocat]

"Get ready for $15 gas (yes, $15), oil rationing, and crippled economies." -- My wife and I are almost done. Jobs are globally dependent and not tied to the national or local economies. Gas consumption has been cut to a fraction thanks to various measures (we're ready for $15 gas now). New rainwater collection system is going in soon to support our home food cultivation system (yeah, we even prepared for famine and drought). Just need to replace the roof shingles with solar tiles to take advantage of rising electricity prices. Call me paranoid, but at least I'm not crying over high gas and food prices.

[KillTheMessenger]

I won't call you paranoid. But I will salute you for your personal efforts and investments to make this country less dependent on energy. Now if we can just convince 300 million people to do the same... no matter how small the steps.

[Veri]

All jobs are local. Globalization has massively benefited companies. The minority of benefits have gone to you, the consumer. Cheap Chinese goods, anyone? You buy them. Blame yourself, in part, for the problem.

American consumers should take responsibility for their actions. After all, we elect the Demo-Republicans who set national policy. And for all those wing-nuts who believe this is God's will? That is an excuse to avoid responsibility for your own poor choices. And you are poorer now than you were eight years ago.

[Sumocat]

"All jobs are local." -- Uh, no, they're not. Aside from operational expenses, nothing in my job or company requires interaction with the local community. We don't distribute locally. We don't collect money locally. Same with my wife. Higher local prices will affect us, of course, but it won't slow down business. We are well buffered.

[vippy]

Did the government not make this available to the consumers so they dont' catch that they lack in real income compared to the Europeans? When compared side by side
we are really bad off, both in income and benefits and while we pay the higher taxes we
get the least back.

[johnnyrocketyz]

Sorry mate, but if we have a national crisis (already begun) you will be affected. I don't care how much you have prepared yourself. Unless you have a completely paid off home, gold stashed under your bed, you will be affected. You will still have to pay taxes and the like. And believe me, if you got it they will take it.

We are only beginning to see the results of the worst president in US history. Our current problems cannot entirely be laid at his administrations feet, but he sure as hell hasn't helped us out. I would be willing to bet money that some how he will try for a third term. I'm so scared he might. I can see another terror attack giving him the perfect opportunity to suspend elections and put us all up shit creek with no paddles.

[dadw5boys]

If that happens we will have to follow Thomas Jefferson and strom Washtington and kick them all out!

[Sumocat]

I claimed preparedness, not immunity. I'm not immune to high gas prices, but they aren't breaking me. See the difference?

[dadw5boys]

I agree all the land I own has it's own water supply and I have built wind mills for power supply. Soon I hope to have 3 more green houses up and running. I have a large extended family to help support.
With all the guns out there I fear soon we will be fighting off homeless food theives.

Many people around the country are quitting jobs because there is no rual transportantion and they are only working for gas money.