What if the nation had stuck to the path Mr. Carter laid out? What if we had invested billions back then in public transit and alternative fuels? What if we'd made a national campaign of conservation, similar to the successful no-smoking campaign? What if we'd insisted that Detroit continue pushing up fuel efficiency?
The United States would not be held hostage by petro-crats or tied down in a volatile region of the globe. The money we send to places such as Saudi Arabia plumps the bank accounts of its many princes, who use their billions to appease jihadists. While Afghanistan's Taliban certainly played a role in 9/11, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. Why send any of our money to them?
As recently as seven years ago, in the wake of 9/11, President George W. Bush could have used our renewed sense of duty and patriotism to hike the gasoline tax and push through higher CAFE standards. At the time, the average cost of a gallon of gas was around $1.55. If Mr. Bush had pushed the price to $2.50, the nation would have had a huge reserve to use for building public transit and finding alternative fuels. Instead, he did nothing about our addiction to oil.
