The lowering of thermostats in Germany is another example of the 1970s coming back from the grave like something out of a lame horror sequel. Remember this?

Jimmy Carter advised Americans to set their thermostats to 55 degrees overnight during the winter months to “waste less energy,” offering his guidance in a televised address to the nation on February 2, 1977, in the midst of a national natural gas shortage.

Carter’s moronic solution was not to reduce regulation but to conserve, on the principle that even a small amount of life-sustaining fossil fuel will last indefinitely if you don’t use it.

The 1970s were dark times, because we were almost out of oil. Carter contributed to his trademark malaise with prophecies of doom:

• “The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are running out.”

• “Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil than it can produce.”

• “We can’t substantially increase our domestic production…”

• “Within ten years we would not be able to import enough oil—from any country, at any acceptable price.”

• “If we fail to act soon, we will face an economic, social and political crisis that will threaten our free institutions.”

Decades later, we have plenty of oil. Energy crises are cyclical:

As the great energy economist Morry Adelman explained in the pages of Regulation more than a decade ago, many energy sources—especially hydrocarbons like oil and natural gas—are disposed to price cycles. Demand at a given price sometimes grows faster than supply, which results in higher prices, which results in new energy exploration, innovation, and investment, which results in lower prices, which leads to a new price cycle.

The current energy crunch is different in that it has been deliberately imposed on us by the government for ideological reasons. That means all we need to do to come out of the crisis is pry Democrats loose from power — although that may be easier said than done, given their control of the media and willingness to cheat.

On tips from Lyle.

Comments are closed.