WASHINGTON - George W. Bush leaves his mark on the nation's energy policy like no president in a generation. An unabashed champion of the oil industry, Bush swept aside regulatory impediments to domestic oil and natural gas drilling. But this same one-time Midland oilman also declared the nation "addicted" to oil and signed bills requiring greater use of renewable fuels and raising vehicle mileage requirements.
WASHINGTON — George W. Bush leaves his mark on the nation’s energy policy like no president in a generation.
An unabashed champion of the oil industry, Bush swept aside regulatory impediments to domestic oil and natural gas drilling.
But this same one-time Midland oilman also declared the nation “addicted†to oil and signed bills requiring greater use of renewable fuels and raising vehicle mileage requirements.
While a steadfast, at times even lone, advocate for building up the nation’s emergency oil stockpile, Bush largely punted on what may be the most pressing environmental issue of our age: addressing climate change.
As polarizing a figure on energy as any other issue, Bush sparks assessments that suggest a mix of strategic vision and shortsightedness.
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Kevin Book, an oil analyst with FBR Capital Markets, credits Bush for saving consumers last summer from even worse problems than $4-a-gallon gasoline when supplies of high-quality oil became tight, thanks to a “bold†policy promoting ethanol and other renewable fuels.
But David Doniger, a climate policy expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, calls Bush’s energy legacy “a wasteland,†while Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, considers Bush’s energy policy as disastrous as the government’s response when New Orleans was drowning.
“The Katrina analysis fits perfectly,†Cooper said.
Policy shortcomings
Certainly, Bush fell short on several major energy policy fronts.
He was unable, for instance, to marshal the political support to open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, believed to hold the largest untapped onshore oil deposit left in the U.S.
No new nuclear power plants have been built on his watch, although utilities have filed a number of new permit requests. And a proposal to encourage refineries to build plants on old military bases has gone nowhere.
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