Energy/Gas Prices

[mykpart]

They made fun of Lyndon Johnson for making sure all the lights were turned off in the WH at night. We made 55 the speed limit because cars used gas most effieciently at that speed. Manufacturers began making smaller, more energy-efficient cars, mainly because nobody wanted to buy the big gas hogs. Carter put solar panels in the WH. Reagan came along and had them removed. We did away with the 55 speed limit and started making big monster cars again. Cheney told us conservation wouldn't really help. We've been through a gas crisis once already in the 70s. Why did we let it happen again?

[depakid]

1. Simple answer, I know but

Dismantling 50 years on responsible media regulation in the 1980's had A LOT to do with it. Too bad Clinton didn't bother trying to fix that- and instead focused on making the situation even worse.

[RB TexLa]

2. You greatly overemphasize the role of the US in the world energy

market.

[Neil Lisst]

3. I'm not sure that is the gist of the OP

Conservation is oriented towards limiting what WE need. It may only have a negligible effect on price of product, but it will have some downward impact on the price. More importantly, conservation means not shipping those dollars overseas, which further hurts our trade balance.

We DID let it happen again. We let ourselves NOT stay serious about solar and ethanol, and now we're in a mess again.

[RB TexLa]

4. they did

title "Energy/Gas Prices"

conclusion "Why did we let it happen again?"

I assume the "we" is the United States and they talk only about efforts in the United States. If I am wrong, then sorry.

[mykpart]

5. Well, really, I meant "we" as we intelligent people.

But doesn't the US consume more oil than any other country, and by a large margin? Aren't most other developed countries already making smaller cars and conserving? (I don't mean to sound too naive, but I don't really know.)

[RB TexLa]

7. From 2004

http://www.geohive.com/charts/charts.php?xml=en_cons&xsl=en_cons

million tons oil equivalent usage

US 2,331.6
China 1,386.2
Russia 668.6

World total 10,224.4

China, Russia, India have all increased greatly since 2004, especially China. Even a 30% drop in the amount of energy we use would have not even a noticable effect on energy prices.

[Neil Lisst]

6. We did let it happen to us. We could have moved to solar and others.

The point is we didn't get off the foreign oil. We didn't develop solar fully, we didn't develop ethanol, and now we're addicted to the oil in the mideast or Venezuela.

You're only thinking about the US demand and its impact on the world price. The OP was talking about using a variety of conservation approaches and green approaches which were given lip service, then largely ignored.

Solar is the way to go, especially with global warming here.

[rfkrfk]

8. this is a state issue

federal legislators who try to impose a speed limit,
commit political suicide.

for an individual legislator,
there is no benefit, as this gains
no votes, but make lots of new enemies

edit, typo