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Carter's Address to the Nation About Energy Problems (1977)

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
> Our consumption of oil would keep going up every year. Our cars would continue to be too large and inefficient. Three‐quarters of them would continue to carry only one person—the driver—while our public transportation system continues to decline. We can delay insulating our homes, and they will continue to lose about 50 percent of their heat in waste. > We can continue using scarce oil and natural gas to generate electricity, and continue wasting two‐thirds of their fuel value in the process. I wonder if it was this what doomed him, despite the bits about running out of oil, it's all very resonant. Here's a follow up: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/10/14/carter-rips-oil-firms-defends-energy-plan/e0b3097e-bc35-4f3f-b4de-6a4230189630/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/10/14/c... > he raised the specter of "war profiteering" by the companies, which have opposed his energy proposals in the Senate, and suggested that the impending energy crisis could give rise to "the greatest rip-off in history." > It was the harshest invective the President has yet directed at the oil producers, who comprise one of the most financially and politically powerful segments of the American industrial economy. > ". . . The oil companies apparently want it all," the President declaimed. "We are talking about enormous amounts of money. Never before in our history has this much money been involved in a decision controlled by government policy and by legislation." > Carter asserted that the oil and gas industries were operating outside the free enterprise system, a charge that is perhaps unprecedented from the Presidential podium. > They are not part of the system, he said, "because prices are not free. They are heavily influenced by decisions made outside our country, by the OPEC nations, and they are heavily influenced by some control [WORD ILLEGIBLE] the rate of production by American companies." The Organization of petroleum Exporting Countries [WORD ILLEGIBLE] has been largely responsible for guadrupling of world prices in [WORD ILLEGIBLE] years. > The President's attack immediately provoked critical responses from industry representatives and from his congressional opponents.

> Our consumption of oil would keep going up every year. Our cars would continue to be too large and inefficient. Three‐quarters of them would continue to carry only one person—the driver—while our public transportation system continues to decline. We can delay insulating our homes, and they will continue to lose about 50 percent of their heat in waste. > We can continue using scarce oil and natural gas to generate electricity, and continue wasting two‐thirds of their fuel value in the process. I wonder if it was this what doomed him, despite the bits about running out of oil, it's all very resonant. Here's a follow up: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/10/14/carter-rips-oil-firms-defends-energy-plan/e0b3097e-bc35-4f3f-b4de-6a4230189630/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/10/14/c... > he raised the specter of "war profiteering" by the companies, which have opposed his energy proposals in the Senate, and suggested that the impending energy crisis could give rise to "the greatest rip-off in history." > It was the harshest invective the President has yet directed at the oil producers, who comprise one of the most financially and politically powerful segments of the American industrial economy. > ". . . The oil companies apparently want it all," the President declaimed. "We are talking about enormous amounts of money. Never before in our history has this much money been involved in a decision controlled by government policy and by legislation." > Carter asserted that the oil and gas industries were operating outside the free enterprise system, a charge that is perhaps unprecedented from the Presidential podium. > They are not part of the system, he said, "because prices are not free. They are heavily influenced by decisions made outside our country, by the OPEC nations, and they are heavily influenced by some control [WORD ILLEGIBLE] the rate of production by American companies." The Organization of petroleum Exporting Countries [WORD ILLEGIBLE] has been largely responsible for guadrupling of world prices in [WORD ILLEGIBLE] years. > The President's attack immediately provoked critical responses from industry representatives and from his congressional opponents.