I'm slogging to the end of Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy and may yet provide a brilliant summation. But meanwhile, here's some of the good stuff:
The Bush administration energy legislation enacted in 2005 left the global energy markets sufficiently unimpressed that oil prices made new highs. Skeptics observed that the most important sections of the bill were those deleted at various stages, meaningful provisions requiring the government to find ways of reducing U.S. oil demand, automakers to improve efficiency, and utilities to generate 10 percent of electricity from renewable energy sources. Powerful constituencies found such strictures unacceptable, although the federal government had raised the standards of energy efficiency for refrigerators, for example, six times since the 1970s with enough success that comparable new units use only one-fourth as much electricity. Any remotely similar gain in automobile and truck efficiency would go a long way to ease oil-import demands.
Amen. In my hometown house, a generously sized new fridge runs on "vacation mode" consuming no more electricity than a 75-watt bulb. In my sister's garage sits a beloved family milk dispenser that the dairy once installed in our house, so it could deliver milk in three-gallon cans, two at a time, as if to a restaurant.
Over the years, it evolved into a beer cooler. It still works, but now sits idle because it consumes so much energy and throws off so much heat. It's instructive to see it beside my brother-in-law's restored '68 Mustang, which stinks when it idles but otherwise gets gas mileage about equal to a new Denali's.
Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans fantasize about sending out $100 gas tax rebates or releasing some of the strategic oil reserve to mollify people who've made bad choices — instead of kicking some automaker butt.
