But there’s little in the short term that any president can do. Longer term, presidents and presidential candidates for decades have set a goal of energy independence, to no great success. No president or Congress has found the political will or the consensus on policies to achieve that goal. Little in the current campaign suggests that will change starting in 2013.
Listen to the candidates with one ear and you would think they basically agree on energy issues. Both are, in their own ways, advocates of “whatever works” approaches to wean the United States off its dependence on foreign oil. Listen with both ears and you come away understanding the debate that rages from campaign event to campaign event.
In Mitt Romney’s telling, Obama has slighted domestic production of oil, gas and coal while shoveling billions to alternative-energy companies, some of which have gone bankrupt and some of which are run by his contributors. To hear the president, Romney is a tool of big oil and other energy producers, defending tax breaks for the industry at a time of record profits and not willing to stand up to them on behalf of consumers.
The rhetorical differences are significant, but if there were easy solutions, politicians would have found them long ago.
— Dan Balz
Here are Obama and Romney’s positions on energy, broken down by subject:
Obama took advantage of the financial crisis in the auto industry to forge an agreement with companies, unions, banks and environmental groups for improving the fuel efficiency of new cars. About one in eight barrels of oil produced worldwide goes into American cars and trucks.
The initial deal set fuel efficiency standards at the equivalent of 35.5 miles per gallon for the average new car by 2016 and later talks set an average of 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by model year 2025. Although it will take more than a decade to replace the U.S. vehicle fleet, oil industry economists think that American motor fuel consumption may have peaked.
Romney opposes President Obama’s new fuel efficiency standards. He says that the government mandate is the wrong way to improve efficiency and that it will raise the cost of cars more than it will offset the money motorists will save by buying less gas.
“Governor Romney opposes the extreme standards that President Obama has imposed, which will limit choices for American families,” a campaign spokeswoman said. “The president tells voters that his regulations will save them thousands of dollars at the pump but always forgets to mention that the savings will be wiped out by having to pay thousands of dollars more up-front.”