Public Remains of Two Minds on Energy Policy
PEW Research Center: June 14, 2010
With the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico now nearly two months old, the public is sending mixed signals about U.S. energy policy. Despite the growing damage from the Gulf oil leak, the public generally favors continuing to drill for oil and gas in U.S. waters. And in setting priorities for energy legislation in Congress, fully 68% favor expanding exploration and development of coal, oil and gas in the United States.
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Congress enacted much of what Jimmy Carter proposed in his speech to the nation so many years ago. Coupled with the energy-efficiency standards for cars enacted by an earlier Democratic Congress, and the passage in 1978 of five energy bills directed at spurring energy efficiency and renewable energy, the Energy Security Act of 1980 created a comprehensive and coherent energy policy directed toward eliminating our dependence on imported oil.
Why don't we remember this? In part, because the president who entered office only a year after Carter's speech immediately set about dismantling or dramatically cutting back most of the programs enacted in the 1970s. The energy crisis subsided. A severe worldwide economic downturn in 1981 and 1982 cut the price of crude oil by 75 percent. Depending on imported oil didn't seem so dangerous and so the nation dropped back into lethargy.
Much of what is suggested in Carter's speech shown here, by way of a reminder, still makes sense today. Where's the cardigan?
President Carter's Proposed Energy Policy
