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The Four-Decade Quest for an “Energy Independence” Policy: Chasing a Trope Through Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

PETER Z. GROSSMAN
PETER Z. GROSSMAN*
Affiliation:
Butler University, USA
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Abstract

Since the presidency of Richard Nixon, policymakers have sought “energy independence” as the goal of energy policy. But that goal, unclear to begin with, has grown more opaque over time. “Energy independence” has meant different things at different times with no clear definition. Nevertheless, the goal is evocative, with symbolism that draws on key narratives from American history. This article argues that the idea of “energy independence” has become a trope and as such a major component of the energy-policy discourse. It describes the shifting (often only apparent) definitions of the trope both in energy-policy rhetoric and in energy legislation, and also explains how the discourse has shifted in recent years due to resource development and the realities of climate change.

Keywords

Energy-independence definitionsrhetorical path dependenceenergy-policy legislation
Type
Critical Perspective
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 93 - 110
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2021

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References

Notes

1. President Richard Nixon, “The Energy Emergency: The President’s Address to the Nation Outlining Steps to Deal With the Emergency,” 7 November 1973, retrieved from: https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2003/7/3/1158015d-8cf9-4fae-8128-0f1ee8a8d292/publishable_en.pdf.

2. Notably, Vietor, Richard H. K., Energy Policy in America Since 1945: A Study of Business-Government Relations (Cambridge, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Goodwin, Craufurd D., ed., Energy Policy in Perspective: Today’s Problems, Yesterday’s Solutions (Washington, DC, 1981)Google Scholar; Grossman, Peter Z., U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure (Cambridge, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Jacobs, Meg, Panic at the Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s (New York, 2016)Google Scholar.

3. There are a few works that treat some aspects of “energy independence,” notably Robert Bryce, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusion of “Energy Independence” (New York, 2008). But this and other examinations of energy independence do not assess the many meanings of the term, why it has persisted in energy-policy discourse, or why it developed into a trope.

4. Found at the Government Publishing Office, online at: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/search/%7B%22facets%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22filterOrder%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%22facetToExpand%22%3A%22publishdatehier%22%2C%22offset%22%3A0%2C%22pageSize%22%3A%2210%22%2C%22sortBy%22%3A%220%22%2C%22query%22%3A%22%5C%22energy%20independence%5C%22%22%2C%22historical%22%3Afalse%7D.

5. Frank Luntz, “Our Divided Nation Is United on Energy Independence,” RealClearPolitics, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/09/06/our_divided_nation_is_united_on_energy_independence_137992.html, 8 September 2018.

6. See Littlefield, Scott R, “Security, Independence, and Sustainability: Imprecise Language and the Manipulation of Energy Policy in the United States.” Energy Policy 52:779–88 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7. Although energy independence proponents have made clear references to oil, in some policy rhetoric, policymakers have also linked natural gas to energy independence, especially liquified natural gas (LNG). America was thought to be running out of natural gas in the 1970s and then again early in the 2000s. Given the extensive usage of that energy resource in the United States, LNG imports were projected to increase tenfold from 2003 to 2025. Major sources of LNG were OPEC members. As the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation was told at a natural gas hearing on 6 October 2004, “Increasing reliance on LNG will result in the US becoming more dependent on OPEC.”

8. Beginning with Nixon, many, many public officials have made the analogy to the Apollo program when talking about the effort required for energy independence. See Grossman US Energy Policy, chap. 6.

9. For example, Representative Mike McCormack (D-WA), 26 July 1979, said on the floor of the House of Representatives, “Let us not forget that in 1776, Thirteen Colonies took a stand against tyranny and oppression and made a commitment to seeking independence. Their road to independence was not an easy one. Over 200 years later, we are being asked by the President and by the American people to make a similar and equally critical commitment to energy independence from the economic oppression and tyranny of foreign energy sources such as the OPEC cartel. Congressional Record, 96th Cong., 1st sess., p. 20892.

10. E.g., Republican Senator Jim Jeffords in 1991; Democratic Senator Evan Bayh in 2006, and many others.

11. Zahariadis, Nikolaos, “The Multiple Streams Framework: Structure, Limitations, Prospects,” in Sabatier, Paul A, ed., Theories of the Policy Process (Boulder, CO, 2007), 76.Google Scholar

12. Zahariadis, Nikolaos, Ambiguity and Choice in Public Policy: Political Decision Making in Modern Democracies (Washington, DC, 2003), 100.Google Scholar

13. Rose, Richard, “Inheritance before Choice in Public Policy,” Journal of Theoretical Politics 2:263–91 (1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Mahoney, James, “Path Dependence in Historical Sociology,” Theory and Society 29:507–48 (2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15. Zahariadis, “Multiple Streams,” 66.

16. Kingdon, John W., Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies, 2nd ed. (New York, 1995)Google Scholar.

17. John J. Fialka, “Energy Independence: A Dry Hole? Experts Across Political Spectrum Challenge “Emotionally Compelling” Slogan,” Wall Street Journal, 5 July 2006, A4.

18. For example, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) at the Hearing Before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources United States Senate, 109th Cong., 2nd sess., Discussing the Goal of Energy Independence (6 March 2006), used “energy self-sufficient” and “energy independent” interchangeably, 1–3. But other examples can be found from the 1970s onward, e.g. Representative Don Bailey (D-PA), (Extension of Remarks), Congressional Record, 96th Cong., 1st sess., 20 June 1979, 15813.

19. Some experts have made this distinction with respect to energy. US Vice Admiral (ret.) Lee Gunn, for example, at a National Security Forum on 5 March 2019, said that the Uunited States had achieved energy self-sufficiency as of 2019 but was not energy independent, apparently because the United States was not immune to world energy market-price fluctuations, https://nationalsecurityforum.org/2019/03/07/march-21-energy-security-and-grid-resilience-diversifying-and-securing-energy-supplies-nationally-and-locally-with-vice-admiral-lee-gunn-usn-ret/.

20. The demand side also mattered to Nixon. In 1971, he had imposed (and throughout his administration retained) price controls to keep a lid on oil prices as well as to mitigate inflation—an action that arguably hurt consumers far more than it helped. See Jacobs, Panic at the Pump, esp. chaps. 1 and 2.

21. See Bryce, Gusher of Lies.

22. Public Papers of the President, Richard M. Nixon, “Question and Answer Session at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Broadcasters,” Houston, 19 March 1974, 283–84.

23. Dixy Lee Ray, Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, quoted in Edward Cowan, “US Energy Goals Are Still Far Off as Supplies Rise.” New York Times, 13 May 1974, 65.

24. For example, Romano L. Mazzoli (D-KY) opined on 18 December 1973, that “the United States must not be ‘blackmailed’ by the economic pressures of the Arab oil embargo” and needed to pursue policies “ridding itself of the ‘albatross’ of Mid-East oil” (Congressional Record, 93rd Cong., 1st sess., 18 December 1973, p. 42323)—equating energy independence with no more Arab-OPEC oil.

25. It should be noted that the Arab effort at influencing US opinion backfired as polls of the period showed diminished approval of Arab causes. See, for example, De Boer, Connie, “The Polls: Attitudes Toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” Public Opinion Quarterly 47:121–31 (1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26. Neil de Marchi, “Energy Policy Under Nixon: Mainly Putting out Fires,” chap. 6 in Goodwin, ed., Energy Policy in Perspective, 460–61.

27. Noted in Edward Cowan, “US Energy Goals Are Still Far Off as Supplies Rise.” See note 23.

28. Neil de Marchi, “ The Ford Administration: Energy as a Political Good,” chapter 7 in Goodwin, ed., Energy Policy in Perspective, 481.

29. Cowan, Edward, “Says He Will Warn Ford Against Crash Program to Develop Them: Sawhill Opposes Synthetic-Fuel Effort,” New York Times, 12 October 1974, 39Google Scholar.

30. Grossman, US Energy Policy, 139.

31. James L. Cochrane, “Carter Energy Policy and the Ninety-fifth Congress” in Goodwin, ed., Energy Policy in Perspective, chap. 8. Also Grossman, US Energy Policy, chap. 5.

32. See Grossman, US Energy Policy, chap. 6.

33. Congressional Record (Extension of Remarks), 96th Cong., 1st sess., p. 18153, 11 July 1979.

34. There are many other examples from the Congressional Record of the 96th Congress. To cite two: 14 November 1979, Representative James H. Scheuer (D-NY) declared, “We must free ourselves from this pressure [OPEC] by moving on every front to achieve energy independence and self-sufficiency,” p. 32353. On 3 August 1979, Senator Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (R-CT) said that it was “time for the Congress to lead this nation out of the grasp of OPEC toward … eventual energy independence,” p. 22670.

35. Congressional Record, 101st Cong., 2nd sess., 11 September 1990, p. H7291.

36. Introduced (1991, 102nd Cong.) H. Con. Res. 79, Concurrent Resolution Calling Upon the President to Work with Other Nations to Create and Implement A Western Hemisphere Energy Policy. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) introduced a similar proposal in the Senate for West Hemisphere Energy Security Promotion (S. 2058). It died in committee.

37. Her “Biofuels Energy Independence Act of 2001” (H.R. 3099) had as a primary goal replacement of 100 million gallons of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with ethanol, an amount less than 0.05% of annual oil usage.

38. Representative Bob Filner (D-CA) introduced H.R. 770, “Putting the Pedal to the Metal: Accelerating the Energy Independence of America Act,” in 2003.

39. Sam Youngman, “Romney Seeks North American Energy Independence by 2020,” Reuters, 8 August 2012.

40. For example, the Carter-era Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Act, the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act, and the Synthetic Fuels Corporation were all substantially revised or defunded or repealed.

41. In February 1974, energy “czar” William Simon received a memo from the Project Independence Working Group explicitly saying the capability for self-sufficiency by 1980 or even somewhat later was impossible. Short of a massive conservation effort, the report said, even with Project Independence the US would be importing 4.4 million barrels of oil per day (MBD); an improbably massive conservation effort in the United States would cut imports further but no lower than 1.5 MBD, and that was deemed outside the realm of real possibility. As the head of the US Geological Survey quipped, Project Independence could only succeed “if Murphy’s Law is supplanted by a new law that states ‘whatever can go right, will.’” Noted in Grossman, US Energy Policy, 39–40.

42. Rose, “Inheritance before Choice in Public Policy.”

43. Grossman, US Energy Policy, 131.

44. Public Law 94–163.

45. Morris, Kenneth E., Jimmy Carter: American Moralist (Atlanta, 1996), 254Google Scholar.

46. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Congressional Record, 29 January 1981, 1257.

47. Public Law 95–620.

48. Cochrane, in Goodwin. ed., “Carter Energy Policy,” 585; Grossman, US Energy Policy, 262.

49. See Toby Bolsen and Fay Lomax Cook, (2008) “Trends: Public Opinion on Energy Policy: 1974–2006,” Public Opinion Quarterly 72:364–88 (2008).

50. James D. Schlesinger, from the interview transcript, James Schlesinger, Carter History Project, Miller Center of Public Affairs, Charlottesville, 19–20 July 1984, 43.

51. Grossman, US Energy Policy, 208.

52. Backgrounder, White House Press Office, Spring 1980.

53. cnn.com, “Carter pushes energy reform plan to Congress,” 12 May 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/12/carter.energy/index.html

54. At various times Democrats tried to revive Carter-era programs. Most notably, Harold Volkmer (D-MO), who proposed the “Commercialization of Alternative Energy Sources and Energy Technology Act of 1990,” which was intended “to put back programs started in 1979 and 1980.” (Congressional Record, 101st Cong., 11 September 1990.)

55. Quoted in the Detroit Free Press, 23 March 1980.

56. Richard J. Stegmeier, New York Times, 22 January 1989, F2.

57. Robin Toner, “House Grows Edgy as Elections Near,” New York Times, 5 August 1990, 24.

58. S.661, introduced, 14 March 1991.

59. For example, during the early phase of the war (Desert Shield), on 11 September 1990, Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) argued, “You cannot tell me that it is beyond the capabilities of the United States of America to become energy independent if we make it a national priority.” Congressional Record, 101st Cong., 2nd sess., H7291. After the war, on 24 July 1991, Senator Charles “Chuck” Robb (D-VA) asserted that the United States “already possesses the energy resources and technological potential … to achieve energy independence.” Congressional Record, 102nd Cong., 1st sess., 19505.

60. Public Law 110–40.

61. See, for example, Pimentel, David and Pimentel, Marcia, “Corn and Cellulosic Ethanol Cause Major Problems.” Energies 1:35–37 (2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62. “The United States is expected to export more energy than it imports by 2020,” https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38152.

63. Each energy crisis in the 1970s entailed large price increases by OPEC. This had major effects on the bottom line for the major oil companies because they could sell oil extracted at a much lower cost than the new OPEC-dictated price. The windfall profit tax was repealed in 1987 because even by the government’s reckoning there were no longer any windfall profits in oil.

64. Bang, Guri, “Energy Security and Climate Change Concerns: Triggers for Energy Policy Change in the United States?” Energy Policy 38:1645–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65. Balcombe, Paul, Rigby, Dan, and Azapagic, Adisa, “Energy Self-sufficiency, Grid Demand Variability and Consumer Costs: Integrating Solar PV, Stirling Engine CHP and Battery Storage,” Applied Energy 155:393–408 (2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.