Myth 1.0 - The Bush Administration had no Energy Policy

One thing we can agree on: America knows marketing.  We’re masters of selling, of knowing how to appeal to customer emotions.  The United States has been a leader in using mass media to transmit messages and manipulate emotion.  Our advances in technology and Hollywood-style art, funded by economic prosperity, have drenched our every day lives in media messages.  Our political leaders now are more and more a function of effective marketing than of honest discourse.  In my mind, the line between effective marketing and propaganda is very thin and is basically a matter of honesty.

 

Although I am not surprised, I have become disgusted by the campaign to distort the history of the Bush administration and the last ten years.  As most of you, I lived through the 2000’s; but I remember it very differently from the story being rewritten for us by the propagandists of the Democrat Party.  

 

In response to these efforts to rewrite history, I’ve decided to submit some facts that the press tends to overlook.  Today, we start with the idea being circulated (promoted) that the Bush Administration had no energy policy and the Obama is now victimized by this policy drift.

 

 

I remember (correctly) that developing a national energy policy was a major priority of the Bush Administration.  During his second week in office, George W. Bush created a National Energy Policy Development Group to “…increase and diversify our nation’s sources of traditional and alternative fuels in order to furnish families and businesses with reliable and affordable energy, to enhance national security, and to improve the environment.”  Unlike typical government panels, this one had a report ready in four months.  In May, 2001, the Report of the National Energy Policy Group was released and it became the foundation for a variety of legislative initiatives.  The pdf version of the report can be accessed by this link:   http://www.pppl.gov/common_pics/national_energy_policy/national_energy_policy.pdf 

 

 

Bush critics will not bother to read the report, but it is a reasonable and balanced approach that addresses the need for environmental protections as well as the need to explore for energy in our own borders.  There is even a recommendation promoting the use of pollution credits and many similar recommendations for using federal royalties to fund research and technology for renewable energy, clean coal and energy conservation.

What happened to this agenda?  Did congress come together, in response to this initiative and the best interests of the nation, to enact a comprehensive energy policy?  No.

George Bush faced a Senate that was evenly divided.  Just as the energy report was released, Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont changed his party affiliation from Republican and began caucusing with the Democrats.  Tom Daschel was appointed Majority Leader and congress degenerated into a partisan power struggle.  Rather than address our energy needs, the Democrats stirred up a distraction by attacking Vice President, Dick Cheney, who chaired the Energy Group,  for his refusal to release the names of people who he called on for input during the research phase of the development group (as if this was important).  Just as Hillary Clinton refused to reveal the people she talked to as she developed the Clinton health care initiatives, the Bush administration also resisted congress’ efforts to become entangled in the business of the executive branch (not that Hillary was really a member of the executive branch).

 

Later in the year, the initial Bush Agenda items were put on the back burner as the country focused on the events of September 11^th.  

I urge you to read the report by clicking on the link above.  When you hear that the Bush Administration did nothing to develop a comprehensive energy policy, your response should be “nonsense”…or, you know, something similar.

George