On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:54:26 -0500, Mark Sieving
wrote:

You might recall that the oil shortages of 1976 were caused by the
Carter administration assertion that we would be out of oil by 2000.

Can't say that I do. Do you have a cite for that assertion?

Actually, I recall it as "twenty-five years".

It was much cited around here, where Onassis wanted to build an oil
refinery. No point, went the argument; there would be no oil left in
twenty-five years.

It was the conventional wisdom, and it remains the conventional
wisdom, though it's phrased a bit more intelligently now.

So Ed in my judgment was a year off, and the shortage of course wasn't
caused by the assertion but by the gas rationing.

You can ration by administrative fiat, as Carter did, or you can
ration by price, as Reagan did. Price works better. My heart really
bleeds when I see those TV film clips about the suffering American
middle class paying $100 to fill up its SUV. I bought my first new car
in 1962. It was a VW Beetle that got 30 mpg. (Yeah, yeah, dangerous as
hell. I get the sweats when I look at a Beetle today and recall that I
drove that thing twice across the country.) I've always had
fuel-efficient cars, and while I don't particularly care to spend
$3.50 a gallon, I'll pay it if that's what it takes to clear the
market.


Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942
new from HarperCollins www.FlyingTigersBook.com