Turn Out the Lights

This is something I thought I would never see: President Bush suggesting that we conserve gasoline. Next thing you know he’ll be saying that we need additional tax revenue to pay for some unexpected expenses.

I just remember back to May 7, 2001 when Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary at the time, said that high gasoline consumption was an American Way of Life, and that there was no need for real conservation. Also in 2001 Vice President Dick Cheney said that conservation is not a “sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.” I guess even George W. Bush and his advisors can’t ignore reality forever.

But somehow the President just doesn’t come across as an effective cheerleader for gasoline conservation. Better men than he is have tried before and failed. For one thing his heart doesn’t seem to be in it; and for another thing he has been in denial for so long, I think he just hates to pull his head up out of the sand and face reality.

Besides, the American people aren’t going to buy conservation. Our entire society, from carpool lanes at schools and drive through lanes at fast food restaurants to gas guzzling cars and interstate highways, is geared toward consumption. The circumstances haven’t happened yet to change all that.

I am reminded of the expression, you make your own bed and you lie in it. If high gasoline prices harm Bush’s economy, well that is partly a problem of his own making.