{"id":80,"date":"2005-09-27T12:12:28","date_gmt":"2005-09-27T19:12:28","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-09-27T12:12:28","modified_gmt":"2005-09-27T12:12:28","slug":"bush_just_stop_driving_okay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/2005\/bush_just_stop_driving_okay\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush: “Just Stop Driving, Okay?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
Heads up, this content is 21 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading.<\/div>

President Bush, in a rare display of leadership and responsibility, appealled to Americans to “pitch in” and cut down on their driving. Apparently the constant increase in energy use by the American people has finally met the reality of limited oil supply head-on (with the help of a few hurricanes). The New York Times Article<\/a> continues…<\/p>\n

‘ “People just need to recognize that the storms have caused disruption,” [Bush] added, and that if Americans are able to avoid going “on a trip that’s not essential, that would be helpful.” ‘<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amazing. He’s actually asking us to conserve<\/i> our resources. Because…<\/p>\n

‘Households are on pace to spend an average of $4,500 on energy this year, up about $500 from last year and $900 more than in 2003, according to Global Insight, a research firm.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and apparently it’s not a good thing that the average person keeps costing more to keep adequately energized. Why didn’t he say this earlier? Well, let’s see…<\/p>\n

‘In 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney said, “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it cannot be the basis of a sound energy policy.” Also that year, Ari Fleischer, then Mr. Bush’s press secretary, responded to a question about reducing American energy consumption by saying “that’s a big no.””The president believes that it’s an American way of life,” Mr. Fleischer said. ‘<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh.. of course. So in times of crisis asking us to conserve is a last resort. I’m sure as soon as this all blows over (no pun intended), he’ll tell us to start “driving as normal.” But how will he keep the oil flowing? Hmm…<\/p>\n

‘Mr. Bush promised to dip further into the government’s petroleum reserve, if necessary, and to continue relaxing environmental and transportation rules in an effort to get more gasoline flowing.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course! Use our oil at a faster rate and relax environmental policies! Why didn’t I think of that? Boy, I’m glad that when I’m 60, my grandchildren will have a beautiful toxic waste dump to waddle through beneath a grey smoky sky. Thanks Bush! You’ve cleared it all up for me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heads up, this content is 21 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading.President Bush, in a rare display of leadership and responsibility, appealled to Americans to “pitch in” and cut down on their driving. Apparently the constant increase in energy use by the American people has finally met the reality of limited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}