George vs. Jimmy on Energy

By David Morris, AlterNet. Posted October 3, 2005.

The image of George Bush asking Americans to save oil by driving less brings to mind another image, that of Jimmy Carter wearing a cardigan sweater and asking Americans to save oil by turning down our thermostats.

Carter delivered his speech in February 1977. In July 1979, he gave another energy address that came to be called the "malaise" speech because he seemed to be blaming our unwillingness to stem the rising tide of oil imports on a national melancholy. Both speeches, most observers believe, contributed to Ronald Reagan's decisive victory in 1980.

Today the Democrats are ridiculing Bush's lame appeal for Americans to spend less time behind the wheel. The last thing they may want is for someone to point out that 30 years ago their own party's leader made a similar request.

They should want people to understand the similarities. And the differences. Because there is a stark difference in the way this nation confronted an oil crisis when Democrats were in control compared to the way it has now that Republicans dominate.

President Carter was indeed asking for individual sacrifice; but as a small part of an aggressive, national campaign. President Bush is asking for individual sacrifice instead of an aggressive campaign.

By the time Jimmy Carter gave his first energy speech, the Democratic Congress had already (under Gerald Ford) imposed fuel efficiency standards on cars. That law single-handedly doubled the fuel efficiency of new cars from 1975 to 1987. In 1978, Carter and a Democratic Congress enacted five individual energy laws that launched the commercialization of alternative transportation fuels and renewable electricity sources. And they imposed efficiency standards on an array of major appliances.

In 1980, Carter and the Democratic Senate and House passed energy legislation that contained a credible and coherent strategy for reducing our dependence on imported oil.

Few Americans remember the Democratic response to the doubling of oil prices in 1979 and 1980. One reason is that within months Ronald Reagan came into office and Republicans gained control of the Senate. They immediately tried to overturn all major energy legislation. That initiative failed. But the executive branch effectively dismantled virtually all renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.

Twenty-six years later, it might be instructive to review what Jimmy Carter said in 1979 and compare it to any energy speech George W. Bush has ever given. President Carter began,

Ten days ago I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject -- energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?

He had set his speech aside, he noted, and met with hundreds of individuals. He quoted from many of them, and concluded that Americans had lost confidence in their capacity to act collectively to solve their problems.

But Carter was not there to dwell on our malaise but to present a strategy for overcoming it. He turned to the issue at hand.

Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny. ... It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.

David Morris is co-founder and vice president of the Institute for Local Self Reliance in Minneapolis, Minnnesota and director of its New Rules project.

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