The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Homo Bureaucratus: A Goal Set Is Essentially A Goal Achieved

Posted on | March 30, 2011 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

Via SOL/PuffHO:

Seeking to show the public he understands the burden of rising gas prices, President Barack Obama set an ambitious goal of reducing U.S. oil imports by one-third by 2025, and vowed to break through the political gridlock that has stymied similar initiatives for decades.

So, yeah, Jimmy C. made the DoE, back in ’77.
This has been a smashing success, where smashing is like repeatedly putting the forehead against the wall at a medium pace, and success is like failure. Here is some fun background:

The major impetus for efforts at energy planning and coordination was the “energy crisis” of the mid-1970s stimulated by the OPEC Oil Embargo of October 1973. Congressional concern focused on matters of energy reliability, environmental protection, reasonable prices, economic stability, and national security.

Presidents Nixon and Ford responded to the energy crisis with several initiatives centered predominantly on controlling oil supplies and prices. President Carter introduced his National Energy Act, consisting of five pieces of major legislation supported by the declaration that the energy crisis was the “moral equivalent of war.” The National Energy Act addressed a wide range of energy regulation from traditional fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to conservation and rate design. In an attempt to coordinate all of these activities, Congress passed the Department of Energy Organization Act in 1977 (P.L. 95-91, 91 Stat. 565). In 1980 Congress passed the Energy Security Act, which addressed alternative energy sources from solar power and geothermal to oil shale and tar sands.

The Department of Energy Organization Act was based upon Congressional findings that the United States faced an increasing shortage of nonrenewable energy resources, thus increasing its dependence on foreign energy supplies, particularly oil, and presenting a threat to national security; that a strong national energy program was needed; that energy policy was fragmented in the federal government; and that a national energy program needed to be integrated and coordinated.

Will Jake Tapper ask exactly how the disastrous drilling policy in the Gulf of Mexico supports this goal, one wonders?
iOwnTheWorld says it graphically.

Category: Barack Obama

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