USAs bensinkultur och Irak

David Ignatius är journalist på Washington Post. Han har en intressant artikel i dagens tidning om bakgrunden till USAs intresse för Iraks olja:

Let's imagine for the moment that the United States was a prudent nation and that its politicians, rather than pandering to the public appetite for cheap gasoline, decided to reduce the nation's dependence on energy from the volatile Middle East.

It would be nice if politicians would tell the .. Americans the truth, which is that the energy situation will only get worse over the long run. ... The reason the oil squeeze will only get worse can be stated in two words: China and India. As those countries become more prosperous, their consumption of energy will inevitably rise -- putting further pressure on the market. That has already begun to happen with China, whose growing demand sucked up the 500,000 extra barrels a day of crude that Saudi Arabia added to the market last year to compensate for lost Iraqi production.

Optimists hope that an easy way out of the energy crunch may be found in abundant cheap supplies of natural gas, but industry economists tell me that's wishful thinking.

The people who make America's gas guzzlers know exactly what would force the country to deal with the energy crunch: higher gasoline taxes. A recent article by Danny Hakim in the New York Times had some astonishing quotes from auto executives. Ford chief executive William Clay Ford Jr. explained: "Every place else we operate, fuel prices are very high relative to here and customers get used to it, but they get used to it by having a smaller vehicle, a more efficient vehicle."
...

The European market illustrates how higher taxes push greater efficiency. Last week, premium gas prices in Europe were averaging more than double the U.S. level of $2.24 a gallon -- with prices at the pump averaging $5.07 a gallon in France, $5.36 in Germany and $5.59 in Britain. European consumers inevitably have demanded more efficient cars. According to Hakim, overall oil consumption has fallen in Germany and Britain since the 1970s.

The best plan I've seen for doing the politically impossible comes from an energy economist named Philip Verleger. ... .....

Now Verleger favors what he calls a "prospective gasoline tax," which would allow the country four years to get ready to do the right thing. Congress would enact a stiff tax of $2 per gallon, to take effect in January 2009, with further increases of another dollar in each of the following three years. ...

Verleger estimates that this program could reduce U.S. oil consumption by almost 2 million barrels per day in the program's first year and as much as 10 million barrels per day by 2020.

There's one big problem with Verleger's idea. It's too sane. America likes roaring down Thunder Road, playing chicken with the oil cartel.


Det här är en enastående viktig faktor som driver amerikansk utrikespolitik som få andra faktorer.

Det visar hur isolerat USA är från omvärlden. Det råder ett massvit motstånd mot att anpassa USA till världen utanför, ett motstånd som Bush-regeringen har gjort allt för att underblåsa.