{"id":7461,"date":"2006-05-19T14:32:18","date_gmt":"2006-05-19T18:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7461"},"modified":"2006-05-19T14:32:18","modified_gmt":"2006-05-19T18:32:18","slug":"the-bushcheney-energy-policy-exactly-five-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-bushcheney-energy-policy-exactly-five-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bush\/Cheney energy policy &#8212; exactly five years later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five years ago this week, the president touted a &#8220;comprehensive&#8221; new energy policy that Dick Cheney had crafted with the help of &#8230; well, it&#8217;s a bit of a secret.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, in May 2001, Bush <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/news\/releases\/2001\/05\/20010517-2.html\">boasted<\/a> of the results we could expect as a result of his administration&#8217;s bold new approach. He even touted his plan as a way to help <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/news\/releases\/2001\/05\/20010516-7.html\">lower gas prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Five years later, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.democrats.reform.house.gov\/Documents\/20060516113738-56093.pdf\">released a report<\/a> (.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&#8217;s energy task force.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>Energy prices have risen rapidly.<\/b> 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.<\/p>\n<p><b>American families are spending record amounts for energy.<\/b> 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.<\/p>\n<p><b>The nation\u2019s dependence on foreign oil has increased.<\/b> 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yeah, but other than that, Cheney&#8217;s policy was a great idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five years ago this week, the president touted a &#8220;comprehensive&#8221; new energy policy that Dick Cheney had crafted with the help of &#8230; well, it&#8217;s a bit of a secret. Regardless, in May 2001, Bush boasted of the results we could expect as a result of his administration&#8217;s bold new approach. He even touted his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}