Posted by
Andrews on Monday, June 29, 2009 7:11:40 PM
I have written many times about how Obama reminds me of Carter ("
Yet More Flashbacks","
Not a Flashback Yet","
A Great Article", "
Glad The World Loves Us"). However, it appears he is about to repeat a mistake which caused some of Carter's worst moments.. Granted, price controls were enacted by Nixon, and Nixon is also responsible for repealing most except the damaging oil rulings. But it was under Carter that they came to fruition, so they will always be associated with Carter, even if they aren't his fault. (Though to be fair, Ford was set to repeal them after reelection, and Carter stopped that action until he had nearly left office.)
What those laws did was to price oil from "new" wells lower than "old" wells. As this made it unprofitable to prospect for new oil, the US percentage of our oil consumption dropped, and we relied ever more on imports, giving OPEC ideal conditions to establish cartel prices. ("
A Thought on Oil Reserves", "
How the Government Fights Against Energy Independence")
Which makes
the following description of the cap and trade bill frightening:
Refiners would have to buy allowances for carbon dioxide
spewed from their plants and from vehicles when motorists burn their
fuel. Imports would need permits only for the latter, which
ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva said would create a
competitive imbalance.
"It will lead to the opportunity for foreign sources to
bring in transportation fuels at a lower cost, which will have an
adverse impact to our industry, potential shutdown of refineries and
investment and, ultimately, employment," Mulva said in a June 16
interview in Detroit. . . .
The same amount of gasoline that would have $1 in carbon
costs imposed if it were domestic would have 10 cents less added if it
were imported, according to energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie in
Houston.
In other words, the same conditions which set up the various oil embargoes of the 1970's are about to be repeated, at the same time we are at loggerheads with Iran and Venezuela.
Does anyone else feel a very eerie sense of deja vu?
POSTSCRIPT
I actually brought this up long ago, before Obama won the nomination in "
How to Destroy the Economy" as well as "
A Brief Look At Obama's Economic Plans", the second of which is mainly interesting in how few of Obama's promises have even been mentioned, much less seen any activity.
POSTSCRIPT II
Thanks to Best of the Web for providing this quote.