Obama and America’s Oil Addiction

“By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past” … Obama didn’t say this, but George W. Bush did, in that “historic” confession during his 2006 State of the Union speech: “America is addicted to oil.”

It was without a doubt a classic example of doublespeak in the best Orwellian style. The United States started to taste Iraq’s oil and Dick Cheney was periodically gathering with his energy “mafia.” The inspectors for the Minerals Management Service were letting their guard down and were literally in bed with the petroleum industry.

Bush’s “good” will crashed into a harsh reality. And in the middle of summer, 2008, as a modest appetizer to the great recession, Americans had to practice European “austerity.” Goodbye to cheap oil. Four dollars per gallon (almost a Euro per liter) worked as a persuasive psychological barrier. The 21 million barrels of oil a day shrank by 6 percent, the lowest levels in an entire decade.

But the thirst for oil came back from the same place as soon as the prices went down. The unbreakable love Americans have for their cars is well known. The unbearable addiction to oil, encouraged by subsidies and false costs. And the enormous resistance to change consumer habits in a society that always wants more, and more and more …

Obama is now urging Americans to break away from their oil “addiction,” three months after he gave the green light to new drilling along the coast. Pressure from the Republicans and the almighty oil “lobby” made him falter in the eyes of environmentalists, who will not forgive this misstep, on the verge of the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history.

The Gulf spill is making him back off. Obama is retracing his own steps and is urging Americans to turn to renewable energy, toward energy efficiency and public transportation. Now that the real cost of oil has surfaced, he is asking people to make the effort to use their common sense and do their patriotic duty for the sake of the planet.

Now we have to wait and see if Americans are willing to make such sacrifice, which starts at no less than being willing to pay for oil at its real price, including “externalities” such as the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, just like our colleague, Paul Brown, suggested a few weeks ago in this same space.

There’s even someone who dared to suggest the creation of a “Gulf tax” in gas to cover the money that will be needed to clean the “stain” and restore natural habitats. But Republicans still have their blinders on, singing with renewed strength Sarah Palin’s famous “Drill, baby, drill.” Meaning, addiction at all costs.

You can also read the statement from conservative Rep. Mike Pence, before Obama himself took the seat in the Oval Office: “The American people don’t want this administration to exploit the crisis in the Gulf to advance their disastrous energy policies. We won’t cap that well with cap and trade. We won’t help the families in the region or across this country by raising the cost of energy on every American in the worst economy in 25 years.”*

Should we take that as a “no” for an answer?

*Editor’s Note: This quote dates from June 15, 2010.