It’s amazing to think we will be naming our next president in less than two days. The process has been extremely long and a number of different issues have taken center stage over the last 20 months. Before the recent collapse of the economy, the price of gas was the hot topic for the candidates to discuss. We were all feeling the pain at the pump and it seemed like our collective conscience was focused on how the next president would deal with this issue. Although the environment and energy independence are still mentioned on the stump, they have clearly taken a back seat. I’ve heard the candidates explain how the two issues are linked, but for some reason these sound bites rarely make the evening news. While many experts believe this could be the key to an economic recovery, it will be interesting to see how energy independence is addressed by the new president.
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1 comment:
Very true - It will be interesting to see whether energy independence has real legs this time around.
Apparently, every incoming president since Nixon has promised to free us from dependence on foreign oil. From the 2004 election:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2004/kerry_and_bush_mislead_voters_with_promises.html
The fact is that every time we see a spike in oil/gas prices (as we did this spring/summer), it's followed by a precipitous drop in demand and prices return to normal.
Just a few months ago, we were paying $4.00/gallon at the pump here in New York City. Voters were chanting "Drill Baby, Drill!" and T. Boone Pickens bought more air time than McCain to pitch his energy plan:
http://www.pickensplan.com/index.php
Now, gas prices are back to $2.60/gallon. Will the whole issue hit the back burner again? Should be interesting to watch...
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