A New Criterion to Judge Bush's Second Term

While gas prices this summer exceeded many of our wildest expectations, these prices may likely be only a taste of what is to come in the next five to ten years and beyond. Peak oil—the proposition that the volume of world production of oil will soon reach a peak-- is waiting in the wings as the data mounts and its implications are more broadly understood. Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R) of Maryland has given no less than seven presentations on peak oil on the floor of the U.S. House and, we should note, gave President Bush a private briefing on peak oil on June 29, 2005. This establishes for the public record a fact which many of us have long wondered. Does the administration know about peak oil? Do they care? What are they prepared to do about this? We can now say with certainty that President Bush knows about peak oil. But we cannot, as of yet, say whether he cares nor can we say that he has done anything—besides a few trivial gestures towards conservation and building more refinery capacity (as well as committed our troops to a war in Iraq)—to mitigate the effects of peak oil and lead us towards a more rational energy policy for the future. Will Bush ignore the scientific data behind peak oil just as he has with the data for global warming? Will he lead the way towards sustainable energy? Will he inform the public of these facts? We have, therefore, a new criterion to judge the efficacy of his presidency. The looming energy crisis that peak oil represents is known by him with 100% certainty. Should he obfuscate, should he ignore it, should he pretend it is not real, should he continue his wars of attrition to procure the last of the middle east oil (like in Iran), we cannot but find him culpable for his ignorance, malice, and myopia.