The Bush/Cheney energy policy — exactly five years later

May 19, 2006

Five years ago this week, the president touted a “comprehensive” new energy policy that Dick Cheney had crafted with the help of … well, it’s a bit of a secret.

Regardless, in May 2001, Bush boasted of the results we could expect as a result of his administration’s bold new approach. He even touted his plan as a way to help lower gas prices.

Five years later, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) released a report (.pdf) this week showing what has happened to energy prices and dependency on foreign oil since the release of the plan developed by Vice President Cheney’s energy task force.

Energy prices have risen rapidly. Over the last five years, crude oil prices have increased by 143%; gasoline prices have increased by 71%; natural gas prices have increased by 46%; and prices for other fuels have increased at a rate significantly higher than the inflation rate.

American families are spending record amounts for energy. Five years ago, the average American family spent $3,300 on gasoline, home heating, and electricity. This year, the average American family will spend over $5,100 on gasoline, home heating, and electricity. This is an increase of nearly $2,000 per family. The indirect costs of higher energy prices in the form of higher prices for consumer goods and services are likely to cost families another $1,400 per year.

The nation’s dependence on foreign oil has increased. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Texas Governor George Bush criticized the Clinton Administration for allowing U.S. imports on foreign oil to reach 56% of U.S. oil consumption. Five years after President Bush announced his energy plan, U.S. imports of foreign oil have risen to 65% of U.S. consumption.

Yeah, but other than that, Cheney’s policy was a great idea.

Yes, indeed, Cheney’s plan worked exactly like they drew it up. Why else did they work so hard — including schmoozing with Scalia just before the oral arguments at the SCOTUS — to keep everything hidden from the public and the Congress?

Democracy dies in the dark… res ipsa loquitor.

  • I know Shrub is the one who gets the most attention, but at some point can’t we put all the blame on Dick.
    From Energy to Iraq, the point man on screwing America has been Dick.
    Is it possible to draw up plans to impeach the Vice President?

  • Seems like they read the same page as Enron when they helped California out of its energy crisis.

    The jist of the Cheney policy was to keep supplies tight with rising demand. I’d say their policy is working even if it takes every last dollar out of my wallet. The concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands seems to be the end of our spending of the planet’s stored and concentrated forms of solar energy. How do you spell — COLLAPSE? So goes the flow of every hydraulic civilization. First, those irrigated by water. Second those powered by oil. Sadly, there ain’t no place for Noah to float his boat anymore.

  • It WAS a great idea- for the oil companies. Sheesh, what do you expect when the fox gets to design the henhouse security features?

  • Of course, Cheney & company will argue that the problem is that they didn’t *really* get to do what they wanted – just as they argue Iraq is imperfect because they got hamstrung, the CIA’s intelligence operations were imperfect because they didn’t do what Cheney wanted, the tax cuts are helping the economy but not as much as *more* tax cuts would, etc.

    It’s utter bullshit, of course, but it’s their argument, and the press and political establishment launders it happily because it’s the same fuel they run on.

  • The problem is that the media keeps reporting higher gasoline prices, and that has Americans feeling unsettled. If they would report lower gasoline prices, we’d all be fine.

  • The problem is that the progressive / liberal / democratic blogs, webistes, newsletters, I peruse continue to blame the president for higher prices and increased dependency. The simple fact is you can’t have energy independence and lower prices.

    I very much wish that some politician would have the courage to tell America that hydrocarbons are becoming increasingly scarce, harder to find, more expensive to extract, and are located in areas controlled by people not exactly friendly to us.

    If we don’t want to pick a fight with China over oil, or be beholden to weirdos in the middle east, venuzuela, russia, or nigeria then we need to become energy independent. Half hearted measures such as subsidizing ethanol, or higher cafe standards won’t get us there.

    The only solution is higher prices, achieved through what is currently going on in the markets and substantially higer taxes at the pump. Then and only then will American’s make the hard choices to conserve. Blaming the president for high oil prices is literally driving us nowhere.

  • ” Blaming the president for high oil prices is literally driving us nowhere.”

    I don’t think liberals are blaming him for the high prices. It’s the utter lack of an intelligent energy policy that takes into account dwindling global supplies of oil and global warming that gets us so riled up. I wouldn’t even care if the oil companies got all these tax breaks if we stipulated that they had to invest them in alternative fuel technologies. Of course, if we did that, there’d be no oversight and they wouldn’t comply, so nothing would change.

  • It’s also worth noting that another effect of the energy policy is that energy companies are now enjoying record profits. Who participated in crafting the energy policy? Oh yeah, energy companies.

    It’s REALLY hard not to assume this is as bad as it looks.

    ITMFA

  • The more that Kid George and his lobeless legions of lemmings screw things up, the more I find myself envying the Amish community here in Ohio. Horse-drawn buggies are not susceptible to the distilled-petroleum diet of the Bush energy plan. Neither are wood-fired stoves that can heat a drafty old farmhouse better than a high-efficiency gas/oil model in a house full of plastics. Kerosene lanterns are a bit of a bother—but a few quarts of kerosene is still far better than the voracious gulping of oil.

    If things like this were wedded to some of the modern technologies currently available to us—a solar panel here; a wind turbine there; a simple hydro-ram pump just off to the side—then the “higher-prices” solution presented by haraldb (#8) wouldn’t really be a higher-prices solution—and we could cut Cheney and his Big Oil buddies “off at the kneees—maybe even higher….”

  • Of course fossil fuels are running out – whoever imagined they wouldn’t?
    Of course prices are rising – whoever imagined they wouldn’t?
    Of course countries are fighting over diminishing supplies – whoever imagined that they wouldn’t?
    Why are we surprised and horrified when the obvious happens?

    • Comments are closed.