Wishing for a "Can-Do" Attitude

As I follow the Bush Administration’s policies on energy and its steadfast opposition to the Kyoto Treaty on global climate change, I can’t help wondering what happened to the ‘can-do’ attitude that made America such a great place. Our founding fathers were willing to look beyond their self-interests as they declared their independence from colonial rule. Our ancestors fought to eliminate slavery. Our grandparents and great-grandparents worked to pull us out of the Great Depression. And our parents and grandparents sacrificed for a war effort to defeat a dictator hell-bent on world domination.

A year ago, as the dust was settling from the most heinous terrorist act in history, I realized that amid the tragedy was an opportunity. President Bush had a once-in-a-generation chance to bring about truly great change in our society. With nearly 100% support from U.S. citizens, Bush could have declared that the nation was going to work together not only to protect our nation from the ravages of terrorism but also to wean our nation from its dependence on oil. A Manhattan Project-scale commitment to renewable energy could have, at the same time: reduced our dependence on the Middle East; reduced our inadvertent funding of terrorism via the Saudi Arabian oil pipeline; reduced our nation’s vulnerability to power supply interruption by decentralizing production; stimulated our economy here at home; helped to ease the anger directed at the United States for our arrogant use of 30% of the world’s resources for just 6% of the world’s population; and—oh, by the way—far exceeded the goals of the Kyoto Treaty and done more for the environment than any president since Nixon.

Such a move on the part of President Bush would have taken a lot of courage. It would have meant turning his back on his oil-industry financiers. But I truly believe that by picking up that baton and running with it, he could have carved a place for himself right up there with Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Instead, we hear from the Administration the same, lame ‘can’t-do’ attitude about cutting our dependence on fossil fuels. It would cost our nation too much to comply with the Kyoto Treaty. Shifting to renewable energy sources is too hard. Conserving energy—whether boosting energy codes or forcing auto manufacturers to build cars with higher gas mileage—is too expensive. In reality, most of those economic analyses look only at

first-costs, not the

savings that accrue to homeowners and businesses during operation. And these economic models

certainly don’t account for the military costs of ensuring our access to Middle Eastern oil; nor do they account for the societal costs of caring for people sickened by fossil fuel burning, the costs of cleaning up pollution caused by fossil fuel extraction and burning, or the expected costs of global climate change.

When terrorists struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon last year, President Bush had an opportunity to steer our nation on a course of energy independence, environmental sustainability, and resource-use equity. It was the sort of opportunity our nation hadn’t seen in fifty years. This opportunity was squandered by an Administration that was either too shortsighted to see the potential or too indentured to the petroleum industry to act in the broader interest of the nation.

– Alex Wilson