The president's mad, and he's not going to take it anymore. He's going to take action! He's going to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with $70-plus oil. He's going to direct the EPA to relax pollution standards making more gasoline available to the marketplace. He's going push for increased usage of ethanol. He's going to push for hydrogen-powered technology. He's going to get to the bottom of fast-rising gasoline prices by ordering three federal agencies to investigate. There, that should do it.
That might do it all right, so long as "it" means abating some of the public anger at escalating gas prices and the political hot potato this issue has become. But don't count on the president's public relations initiatives to do anything other than shave a few cents off the price of a gallon of gasoline. The latest actions are window dressing, nothing more.
If our energy dependence were not so fraught with danger, hearing a man with such deep and long-running ties to the oil patch as does George W. Bush lecture about America's addiction to oil might induce bemusement. But there's nothing remotely humorous about a president who, over and over, has turned a blind eye to the real reasons for skyrocketing oil prices. As such, you can't help but question Mr. Bush's leadership on this issue when he says, as he did this week before the Renewable Fuels Association in Washington, "this administration is not going to tolerate [price] manipulation."
In fact, the president's actions are seriously at odds with the words he utters. I'd like to ask him the following questions:
• Why didn't you take steps to stem rising oil prices back at the beginning of your administration, when they broke through OPEC's $22-$28 price band? By not acting then, you gave the oil patch a green light to push prices ever higher.
• Why didn't you push for increased Saudi production and lower prices last year when then-Crown Prince Abdullah visited your ranch in Crawford, Texas? Prices have soared 50 percent in the intervening 12 months.
• Why didn't you veto last summer's energy bill that bestowed new tax breaks on the oil companies when prices were already high?
• Why are there still import duties on ethanol if, as you told the Renewable Fuels Association, ethanol is the "best" and "fastest" way to "replace oil from around the world"? In addition, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman actively defends the duties.(See "Bravo Washington! Addicting Us To Duty Free Oil; Placing a Tariff On The Ethanol Cure" 4/14/06)
• Why do you conflate the issue of high crude oil prices with the need for more refineries? If you are a president standing foursquare against price manipulation, you should be pointing out that the refinery issue is a smokescreen behind which the crude oil producers hide. (Fewer bakeries require less flour, which, in turn, causes flour prices to drop, not rise.)
• Why, Mr. President, did you keep supplying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as prices were going through the roof? And, instead, why didn't you use the SPR as a negotiating tool to counter OPEC production cuts in recent years?
• Why aren't you advocating an overhaul of the domestic oil industry and setting up a commission to review royalties, depletion allowances, oil leases, profit margins, and relations with OPEC producers? (see "The Oil Industry Is Running Away With Our Future" 4/21/06)
• Why haven't you responded to calls from state attorneys general of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin last month for a federal investigation of futures trading? Clearly, something's not right when inventories are up, usage is down, but prices continue to climb (see"Oil Prices Being Pushed Ever Higher By Manipulating Oil Futures Trading" 4/05/06).
• Why haven't you made the DeWine-Kohl bill a legislative priority? What do you have against this bipartisan effort to empower the Justice Department and the FTC to take legal action against OPEC for colluding on oil prices?(see "The Price Of Oil, OPEC, and Our Laws" 3/10/06)
• Why aren't you calling for tougher fuel-economy standards? Many experts believe this one move alone could significantly reduce oil consumption.
• Why aren't you promoting mass transportation?
• Why aren't you threatening domestic oil companies with competition from a national oil company unless they get really serious about directing their profits toward alternative energy solutions? (see "The Oil Industry Driving Away With Our Future-The Norway Solution" 4/24/06)
• Why, after Saddam Hussein was ousted, did your administration see fit to make Iraq's reentry into OPEC one of its first orders of business?
Sadly, the president may talk tough, but when it comes to real solutions to the oil crisis, it's time some tough questions were asked. It's about time some tough questions were answered.