The Energy Potential of Paper

Barack Obama’s energy plans are ambitious. Nevertheless, many of his pragmatic suggestions will die a quick death because Congress rules with a red pen.

The speech is legendary. Nearly four decades ago, Republican Richard Nixon prescribed a “Project Independence” for his nation to free it from its dependence on oil imports. Four years later, a Democrat blew a similar horn: The overcoming of America’s perpetual thirst for cheaper energy, so said Jimmy Carter, promised “a moral war.” And George W. Bush, the scion of a crude-oil-rich dynasty, diagnosed the situation in 2006: “America is addicted to oil.”

And so Barack Obama has denounced the Petro-Mania of his nation. He also wants to alleviate America’s dependence on oil imports (this time by one third in 14 years) and, more clearly than most of his compatriots, he makes energy policy a question of national destiny. The challenge, the Democrat believes, is one that he hopes not to leave the next president or his children. On Wednesday, at his speech to thousands of students of Georgetown University, he swore this to the next generation, a promise made with typical American scientific exploration and patriotic ingenuity to work: “This is your birthright. There is no problem that you can’t solve.”

Big words — only the majority reads that what the president offered for sale was the small print of a PowerPoint presentation by a deputy secretary. More insulation at home, less gas consumption on the street, more bio-diesel in U.S. fighter jets — all that is good and cue his appeal to grow sun and wind energy. His suggestion that in times of climate change, no one can do without the electricity from domestic nuclear power plants, is well balanced.

And, of course, Obama’s energy plan is slightly more efficient than the caloric value of the paper it’s printed on. Many of his thouroughly pragmatic suggestions will die a quick death; the red pen looms in Congress. And because the Republicans now rule there, energy plans will shortly become stalwart ideology: Energy programs with political effects stand high on top of the strike-out list.

Obama’s speech nevertheless also revealed how much he has reduced his claims. The current candidate of hope and change knows that he can never cure America’s addiction to oil without an increase in the price of fossil fuels. However, the president doesn’t use the suggestion of a bi-partisan commission about the remediation of the environment, or raise the state oil tax to the laughable penny per liter.

As for a law for the emission trading he holds his tongue. After all, Arabia’s freedom fight drives America’s oil-prices higher, and Obama can point again to archives: Yes, there stands everything, right next to the yellowing manuscript of Nixon and Carter.