To his credit, Scott McClellan said yesterday that the White House would practice what it preaches when it comes to conservation, including turning down the air-conditioning, scaling back nonessential travel, turning off electrical equipment at night, forming carpools, and using public transportation.
There’s some blending of fuel and electrical conservation here, and a smaller motorcade isn’t exactly a sign of a reasonable energy policy, but I do like the idea of leading by example.
On the other hand, I think McClellan was pushing his luck by insisting that this has been part of an ongoing White House conservation policy.
“And encouraging conservation has been something that this administration has always done. If you’ll recall, back in 2001, we took a number of actions to promote energy conservation.”
As it happens, I do recall 2001, and promoting energy conservation was hardly part of the White House agenda. It was, after all, Dick Cheney who said, “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it cannot be the basis of a sound energy policy.”
Perhaps even more important was Ari Fleischer’s press briefing on May 7, 2001. Asked if the president believes Americans “need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem,” the then-press secretary said, “That’s a big ‘no.'”
“The President believes that it’s an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one. And we have a bounty of resources in this country. What we need to do is make certain that we’re able to get those resources in an efficient way, in a way that also emphasizes protecting the environment and conservation, into the hands of consumers so they can make the choices that they want to make as they live their lives day to day.”
This administration has “always” encouraged conservation? Please.