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Bush is Botching $4.11, Just Like He Did 9/11

Drilling will only worsen America's addiction

By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 20, 2008 1:05 PM CDT
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(Newser) – If a "crisis is a terrible thing to waste," then George Bush's reactions to 9/11 and the $4.11 average gas cost make him a doubly terrible leader, writes Tom Friedman in the New York Times. Instead of using rising gas costs to spur the nation to energy independence, "Our Decider decided to lift the executive orders banning (offshore) drilling—even though he knew this was a meaningless gesture," because of a Congressional moratorium.

Though he himself once kicked an alcohol addiction, Bush isn't leading the country in a direction that will cure what he has termed America's oil addiction. As Friedman writes, "When a person is addicted to crack cocaine, his problem is not that the price of crack is going up." America's problem is that it doesn't want to break its dangerous habit.

President Bush makes a statement on drilling for oil on the outer continental shelf, Monday, July 14,2008, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington.
President Bush makes a statement on drilling for oil on the outer continental shelf, Monday, July 14,2008, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A man works through a dust storm on a new oil well being drilled in the Sakhir desert, Bahrain. Our inability to wean ourselves off foreign oil has hurt America deeply, writes Thomas L Friedman.
A man works through a dust storm on a new oil well being drilled in the Sakhir desert, Bahrain. Our inability to wean ourselves off foreign oil has hurt America deeply, writes Thomas L Friedman.   (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File)
In this March 28, 2006 file photo, the Discoverer Deep Seas drill ship sits on station off the coast of Louisiana as Chevron drills for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
In this March 28, 2006 file photo, the Discoverer Deep Seas drill ship sits on station off the coast of Louisiana as Chevron drills for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
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Conservation, not drilling
Press Democrat

Are the Great Lakes next?
Toledo Blade

Enabler-in-Chief
Beaver County Times & Allegheny Times

 
addiction • Thomas Friedman • Energy crisis • foreign oil • oil drilling • George W. Bush • offshore oil

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