I know it’s been a while since I’ve last blogged, but I’ve been busy with school. I was also in Barcelona for a week. But now I’m back….
In today’s New York Times, there is an article about President Bush pointing out to the Saudis and OPEC countries “the toll that high oil prices are having on the American economy.” It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines that Bush’s “observation” is an American recommendation about how the Saudis might thank the US for yesterday’s announcement that we are selling them 900 missiles. The recommendation is a thinly veiled threat about the costs of being in an alliance with the US. Now you have Bush pointing out “his concern about the economy in
some of his starkest language yet, saying that rising oil and gasoline
prices are causing hardship for American families.” While it’s true that the rising cost of oil will hurt many American families, this problem is not a Saudi one. It’s an American problem. We consume more oil per capita than any other country. It’s our government failure to provide adequate public transportation to discourage America’s obsession with the automobile.
And to make matter worse, Bush said, “the demand for oil, especially from expanding markets in China
and India, as well as from the United States, was rising faster than
supplies.” The main problem with oil supplies is not the rising demand from China and India. While I would prefer that more people not begin to consume more oil, China and India still consume far less oil per capita than the United States. The problem is squarely that we are an oil junkie, and someone else is preventing us from getting our fix. It’s time for Bush to own up that America needs an oil detox and stop blaming other countries around the world.
