Illusions of Candor - Bush jawboning

"W" Is For Wrong Way

Illusions of Candor
By Chris Nelder | Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 Energy and Capital
"It's not like President Bush has been oblivious to peak oil. This wasn't his first statement to the effect that oil won't last forever, although he's been careful to avoid the phrase "peak oil."

Dick Cheney himself explained the reality of peak oil to the Institute of Petroleum in November, 1999:
'By some estimates there will be an average of two per cent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three per cent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from? Governments and the national oil companies are obviously controlling about ninety per cent of the assets. Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow.'

Adding another 50 million barrels par day is like adding another five Saudi Arabias. Even Bush knows that's not possible. The whole time he's been talking about jawboning our friends, he has known what was to come.

And he has done his level best to ensure that America is completely and utterly unprepared to deal with it.

A president who truly cared about his country, knowing what he has known about peak oil, would have taken the galvanizing effect of 9-11 to ask his fellow citizens to drive less, to conserve, to pull together in a campaign of relocalization, and do to all that we could to wean ourselves from our addiction to oil.

Instead, he encouraged us to jump in our SUVs and go shopping.