30 years ago, a cardigan-clad President Carter told America to adjust to the energy crisis by turning down the thermostat. Which may be one reason Jimmy Carter served just one term.
This week, Vice President Dick Cheney took the political lesson to heart and issued what’s essentially a supply side anthem: power to the people. Even if that means building a power plant a week, every week, for the next twenty years. Conservation, he suggested, is a pipe dream. There is already an energy crisis in California, and the blackouts may be rolling their way east.
The conventional wisdom is that Americans regard cheap and plentiful power as a fundamental right, whether that’s fuel for our SUVs or electricity for the air conditioning. Gas and guilt, power and priorities are the topics of this Connection.
(Hosted by Neal Conan)
Guests:
Sue Tierney, energy consultant and former energy and environmental official in Massachusetts and in the Clinton adminstration.;
David Nye, professor of American Studies and author of Electrifying America.;
Nick Driver, reporter for The San Francisco Examiner.;