Last night, President Obama held his first Oval Office address to the nation to update and discuss his actions on the ongoing disaster of the BP oilpocalypse. He informed us that he was working with all of the experts he could to help contain the oil gushing from the bottom of the Gulf; that he was requesting BP set aside a fund for cleaning up the disaster and compensating the victims and people of the Gulf Coast; and pledging to us that the Gulf region will be left better off once the oil stops leaking and the rest of the oil has been cleaned up. He also stated that now is the time to step up on clean energy. But unfortunately, he refused to give any details on what is really needed in this country regarding energy policy. But it's not what you think.
After his address to the nation, our media pundits, particularly the right wing pundits of Fox News, but even those on CNN and MSNBC, rung their hands ragged about how President Obama talked about clean energy but refused to mention any specific plans to deal with the energy crisis in this country or the BP disaster, like setting up a civilian cleanup corps along the Gulf to help clean up the oil washing ashore, or climate change, or the recent cap and trade bill which passed the House but is stalled in the Senate, or even any specifics about how to transition to a green energy economy. While these are all valid points, there is no way for the President, or even a series of Nobel prize-winning experts to address all of these issues in an 18 to 20 minute address. Having said that, while he touched on some of this, he did not even remotely mention the one thing that needed to be addressed during last night's address, which is our own use of resources as Americans.
Lots has been said about how President Obama communicates his ideas to the public, particularly those ideas which lead to teachable moments. Last night was a wasted opportunity to give Americans a teachable moment about our own personal energy use. He could have addressed how we spend far too much precious resources heating and air conditioning our homes, use too much electricity wastefully, and spend way too much time driving in gas guzzling vehicles to do our daily tasks when we could using public transportation or carpooling. He had a golden opportunity to make Americans as a whole examine their own energy usage and make a pledge to conserve energy but missed it. I don't know if this was something he hadn't thought about before making his address to the nation, or maybe he did think about it but remembered how he was pilloried by the GOP when during his candidacy for the White House, he sensibly mentioned during one of the biggest energy crises since the 1970's that it was a smart idea to check tire pressure in order to save fuel. Of course, the last President to address the nation about energy and using it in a smart and sensible way was Jimmy Carter, who in the midst of the staggering OPEC oil crisis of 1979 and the aftermath of the Three Mile Island nuclear scare told the nation that conservation was needed to deal with the energy crisis, and among some of the steps he mentioned was taking public transportation, carpooling when possible, driving only for necessary trips, turning off lights around the house when not in the room, and wearing layers of clothing when it got slightly colder. All of which was sensible advice that Americans at the time needed to hear and implement. So did America wake up and follow his advice?
Hardly. In fact, he was mocked and ridiculed, particularly by Ronald Reagan and the GOP, but even the media itself. It was referred to as the "malaise speech", and even to this day President Carter is being mocked for telling truth to reality.
Sadly, it appears that much of America doesn't like hearing inconvenient truths about energy and/or their need to curtail some of their habits. It was the subsequent crash and implosion in oil prices which led to the rise of gas guzzling SUV's and energy sucking McMansions that were even more wasteful uses of energy than what was around in the 1970's. And yet it's exactly this wasteful use of energy which led to declare war on and invade a country in the name of terrorism which did not attack us, costing thousands of American lives, hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, and ill relations around the globe, and it also led to the coal mine explosion in West Virginia and the current BP disaster.
While I'm aware that President Obama is taking whatever steps necessary to deal with the BP oil disaster, climate change, and clean energy, he missed a good moment to inform and educate Americans about their own energy usage. Instead of giving us an opportunity to look inward and make sensible choices, he let the media continue to expect him to act like a combination of Superman and Santa Claus, hoping for some magic solution to dealing with the multitude of problems facing this nation.