The French were right about one thing: plus ca change, plus
cela meme chose — “the more things change, the more they stay
the same” — at least so far as Congress is concerned.
In early 1974 I went to work in Sacramento for then-Governor
Reagan as his Director of Public Affairs. Some of my colleagues
urged me to help persuade the governor to “stop defending the oil
companies.” The odds of that happening were about as good as
persuading the pope to come out for abortion. The cause of their
concern was real, nevertheless. In the wake of the Arab oil boycott
and the long gas lines of the previous year, gasoline prices were
going up.
Reagan said it was a matter of supply and demand; that the Arabs
and their friends were forming OPEC to take advantage of the
situation and that the Democrats were demagoging it. He was right.
The Democrats, in control of Congress and not yet having run Nixon
to ground, were scapegoating the oil companies in order to
strengthen their electoral chances. Oil company CEOs were called to
account at Congressional hearings. Predictably, they used bluster
and complicated answers to simple questions and were made to look
like nincompoops. There was much self-righteous harrumphing about
this by members of both parties, though Democrats led the
charge.
Fast-forward to last week and the members of Congress, back from
a comfortable Easter recess, trumpeting again about “windfall
profits,” “price gouging,” “unconscionable earnings” and so forth.
This time the Republicans are in control, but desperately anxious
to get ahead of the Democrats in their denunciation of the oil
companies. Committee chairmen are in full-harrumph.
Senator Specter wants a “windfall profits” tax. Senator Grassley
wants to subpoena oil company tax returns, presumably to find such
profits. Meanwhile, Senator Schumer, determined not to solve any
problems but to make Republicans squirm, has his daily sound bite
to raise the decibel level.
The problem is one of supply and demand. Demand is outstripping
supply. The Chinese and Indians are soaking up huge amounts of
petroleum and want even more. Supplies in Nigeria are dicey because
the government won’t give people in the oil-producing area anything
like a fair share of oil revenues. Iran is problematic — or wants
us to think so. Iraq, bedeviled by insurgents, isn’t producing at
full capacity. Venezuela continues to threaten nationalization.
We Americans can only do so much about all this. President Bush
was right in his State of the Union address when he said we were
“addicted to oil.” The solution is to gradually wean ourselves away
from it, first by promoting plug-in hybrid and flexible-fuel
vehicle technology (hydrogen-fueled cars are way in the future).
OK, so Bush came to his conclusion late in the game. Better late
than never. He can now lend the weight of his voice and office to
promoting the short-term solutions. The brisk sale of hybrid autos
is testimony to the value of market forces
at work.
As gasoline prices go up, sales of Hummers and other
fuel-guzzling behemoths will go down. Most cars today have
“instant” and “average” miles-per-gallon calculators on their
instruments panels. Once you get used to watching those —
particularly “instant” — as much as you watch the speedometer, it
is surprising how quickly you will moderate your speed to get
better gasoline mileage.
And, while we are moving toward other technologies, it’s time to
get over the inordinate fear of nuclear power, of
advanced-technology drilling in ANWR (the caribou don’t mind the
Alyeska Pipeline from the North Coast, as many photos and videos
testify) and offshore California and Florida. It’s time to get over
NIMBY. We’re all in this together. Ronald Reagan would agree.
