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Carter was repeatedly wrong about environmental issues, some quotes..“Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in th

Carter was repeatedly wrong about environmental issues, some quotes..“Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil than it can produce.” “World oil production can probably keep going up for another six or eight years. But some time in the 1980s it can’t go up much more. Demand will overtake production. We have no choice about that.” The guy was both wrong and extremely unpopular and defeated by Reagan in a landslide. He was president during a period of unprecedented inflation, multiple geopolitical flubs, unpopular mandates (Like executive orders forcing everyone to set their thermostat at a certain temperature). Don't forget his other legacy, among others Corn-based ethanol, which is both worse for the environment than gasoline, subsidized by our taxes, and has a negative impact on food prices. Carter was a nice guy but a terrible leader.

UncleOxidant 3y ago
It wasn't only Carter who thought we had hit or were close to hitting peak oil production. There were members of both parties who thought it likely. Also, you cite this as an example of him being wrong about an environmental issue, but that was more of an economic issue. I'm surprised you didn't cite his opposition to nuclear power as an example of where he was wrong on an environmental issue - yes, in hindsight we now know that wasn't the way to go, but we have to remember that in the 70s anti-nuke was the environmental position, while they were starting to know about climate change, they didn't yet have the idea that nuclear power (which was becoming increasingly unpopular) would be a good way of avoiding that. The other thing to remember is that Carter was warning that being dependent on foreign oil was bad for US national security. This was why he was doing what he could to get us to reduce our energy consumption. As for the thermostats, I don't recall that we were being mandated to turn down the thermostats in our houses and I was there. As for the inflation, he inherited a lot of that from the wartime spending expansion of his predecessors - Arab oil embargoes didn't help. And he did name Paul Volcker to lead the Fed even though in his interview Volcker told him that the only remedy would be to drastically raise interest rates. Volcker thought that he definitely wouldn't get the job (it was the year before an election year) so he was surprised when Carter picked him. So in that sense, Carter played a key role in killing the 70s inflation (which had been a problem even prior to Carter being elected - Remember Ford's WIN - Whip Inflation Now - buttons?) In the end, Volcker did what he said he was going to do. 10 year treasury rates hit ~15%. The economy swooned and it was a big factor in Carter not winning re-election, but that ended up killing the 70s inflation. He had the guts to pick Volcker even though it would not be good for him politically, but he knew that it would be the best choice for the economy in the longrun. Also in regards to inflation, it should be remembered that Carter was a fiscal conservative trying to reign in spending, but his own party faught him on this. It's why Ted Kennedy primaried him in the 1980 Democratic primaries: he considered Carter to be too much of a tightwad.
- wombatpm 3y ago
  Thermostat lowering wasn’t mandated, but there was a big push with public service announcement ads about turning it down and wearing a sweater
  - UncleOxidant 3y ago
    Yep, and fireside chats with Carter wearing a cardigan sweater next to a fireplace.
  - lazyasciiart 3y ago
    That’s very different.
- 0xedd 3y ago
  Option 1 - Saint leader with no ties to money. Option 2 - Corrupt leader with ties to money. Cute but I'll go with option 2. He "sounded the alarm" to raise demand and price. Why do you give merit to "members of both parties" opinion in fields of science? Said members choose to whom to listen and whom to ignore according to their agenda. History showed us decades upon decades of corrupt leadership that blatantly lie to their people. And you're here reciting some rehashed propaganda?
  - UncleOxidant 3y ago
    Yeah, the dude obviously made bank working on all of those Habitat for Humanity houses. And all that supposed oil arbitrage resulted in his huge $9M net worth[1]. C'mon, not everyone has the same motives that you do. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_net_worth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_Unit... (Note: when he left office Carter had a negative net worth because the blind trust he put his peanut farm in had been mismanaged. He and Rosalynn worked their way out of debt by writing books - about 30 of them.)
mistrial9 3y ago
the political environment was deeply reeling from the Oil Shock embargoes and OPEC. People now probably do not know about gasoline rationing at that time.
- boringg 3y ago
  People nowadays don't know much about the world except the last 10 years. Destined to repeat our mistakes. I hope we aren't entering another dark ages - which would be rich given how able our technology is.
- UncleOxidant 3y ago
  And people now who I'd guess are probably under 50 are downvoting your comment here for some reason. I'm old enough to remember sitting in the backseat of my parent's station wagon waiting in a long line of cars at the gas station. You could only gas up on even/odd days depending on the last number on your license plate. This was around 1973 IIRC.
benreesman 3y ago
We were all wrong about domestic energy independence until the big shale finds/feasibility work in Texas and the Dakotas in the 2000s. Syriana [1] is a pretty good example of the popular zeitgeist as late as its release in 2005. And its portrait of how lobbyism works, how nullified anti-trust was becoming in late Greenspan era, how un-winnable Middle East adventurism was going to play out are all still watching today [2] if you swap the worst of finance and the worst of tech in (neither of energy, tech, or finance are all bad even at the level of individual companies: a few bad apples as usual spoil the bunch in a fractal way). We’re stuck with policies and capture from the pre-shale era because capture is a wratchet (which should be delivered over a Littlefinger monologue and a montage megacap CEOs chuckling over wrist slap fines at the Battery and SoHo House). Carter was a bad leader, though I’ve heard from regular people alive then that it was his wimp out on the Iran hostage crisis and the fiasco with the chopper rescue (Eagle Claw maybe? Desert Claw?) that sealed the deal on the Reagan era and the disastrous consequences of that we still live with today. cough Summers cough what was I saying? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriana [2] https://youtu.be/apM0d3M-sps?si=Ip7P2FD9s15B47HD https://youtu.be/apM0d3M-sps?si=Ip7P2FD9s15B47HD
GauntletWizard 3y ago
Don't forget when he was attacked by a giant rabbit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident

UncleOxidant 3y ago

It wasn't only Carter who thought we had hit or were close to hitting peak oil production. There were members of both parties who thought it likely. Also, you cite this as an example of him being wrong about an environmental issue, but that was more of an economic issue. I'm surprised you didn't cite his opposition to nuclear power as an example of where he was wrong on an environmental issue - yes, in hindsight we now know that wasn't the way to go, but we have to remember that in the 70s anti-nuke was the environmental position, while they were starting to know about climate change, they didn't yet have the idea that nuclear power (which was becoming increasingly unpopular) would be a good way of avoiding that. The other thing to remember is that Carter was warning that being dependent on foreign oil was bad for US national security. This was why he was doing what he could to get us to reduce our energy consumption. As for the thermostats, I don't recall that we were being mandated to turn down the thermostats in our houses and I was there. As for the inflation, he inherited a lot of that from the wartime spending expansion of his predecessors - Arab oil embargoes didn't help. And he did name Paul Volcker to lead the Fed even though in his interview Volcker told him that the only remedy would be to drastically raise interest rates. Volcker thought that he definitely wouldn't get the job (it was the year before an election year) so he was surprised when Carter picked him. So in that sense, Carter played a key role in killing the 70s inflation (which had been a problem even prior to Carter being elected - Remember Ford's WIN - Whip Inflation Now - buttons?) In the end, Volcker did what he said he was going to do. 10 year treasury rates hit ~15%. The economy swooned and it was a big factor in Carter not winning re-election, but that ended up killing the 70s inflation. He had the guts to pick Volcker even though it would not be good for him politically, but he knew that it would be the best choice for the economy in the longrun. Also in regards to inflation, it should be remembered that Carter was a fiscal conservative trying to reign in spending, but his own party faught him on this. It's why Ted Kennedy primaried him in the 1980 Democratic primaries: he considered Carter to be too much of a tightwad.

wombatpm 3y ago
Thermostat lowering wasn’t mandated, but there was a big push with public service announcement ads about turning it down and wearing a sweater
- UncleOxidant 3y ago
  Yep, and fireside chats with Carter wearing a cardigan sweater next to a fireplace.
- lazyasciiart 3y ago
  That’s very different.
0xedd 3y ago
Option 1 - Saint leader with no ties to money. Option 2 - Corrupt leader with ties to money. Cute but I'll go with option 2. He "sounded the alarm" to raise demand and price. Why do you give merit to "members of both parties" opinion in fields of science? Said members choose to whom to listen and whom to ignore according to their agenda. History showed us decades upon decades of corrupt leadership that blatantly lie to their people. And you're here reciting some rehashed propaganda?
- UncleOxidant 3y ago
  Yeah, the dude obviously made bank working on all of those Habitat for Humanity houses. And all that supposed oil arbitrage resulted in his huge $9M net worth[1]. C'mon, not everyone has the same motives that you do. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_net_worth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_Unit... (Note: when he left office Carter had a negative net worth because the blind trust he put his peanut farm in had been mismanaged. He and Rosalynn worked their way out of debt by writing books - about 30 of them.)

mistrial9 3y ago

the political environment was deeply reeling from the Oil Shock embargoes and OPEC. People now probably do not know about gasoline rationing at that time.

boringg 3y ago
People nowadays don't know much about the world except the last 10 years. Destined to repeat our mistakes. I hope we aren't entering another dark ages - which would be rich given how able our technology is.
UncleOxidant 3y ago
And people now who I'd guess are probably under 50 are downvoting your comment here for some reason. I'm old enough to remember sitting in the backseat of my parent's station wagon waiting in a long line of cars at the gas station. You could only gas up on even/odd days depending on the last number on your license plate. This was around 1973 IIRC.

benreesman 3y ago

We were all wrong about domestic energy independence until the big shale finds/feasibility work in Texas and the Dakotas in the 2000s. Syriana [1] is a pretty good example of the popular zeitgeist as late as its release in 2005. And its portrait of how lobbyism works, how nullified anti-trust was becoming in late Greenspan era, how un-winnable Middle East adventurism was going to play out are all still watching today [2] if you swap the worst of finance and the worst of tech in (neither of energy, tech, or finance are all bad even at the level of individual companies: a few bad apples as usual spoil the bunch in a fractal way). We’re stuck with policies and capture from the pre-shale era because capture is a wratchet (which should be delivered over a Littlefinger monologue and a montage megacap CEOs chuckling over wrist slap fines at the Battery and SoHo House). Carter was a bad leader, though I’ve heard from regular people alive then that it was his wimp out on the Iran hostage crisis and the fiasco with the chopper rescue (Eagle Claw maybe? Desert Claw?) that sealed the deal on the Reagan era and the disastrous consequences of that we still live with today. cough Summers cough what was I saying? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriana [2] https://youtu.be/apM0d3M-sps?si=Ip7P2FD9s15B47HD https://youtu.be/apM0d3M-sps?si=Ip7P2FD9s15B47HD

GauntletWizard 3y ago

Don't forget when he was attacked by a giant rabbit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident