Jimmy Carter and Energy Efficiency

In the 1976 election, I worked on the presidential campaign of Mo Udall. I didn’t care much for Jimmy Carter as a candidate, or the emerging neoliberal era he would ultimately introduce. During the 1980 reelection campaign, after it was clear Ted Kennedy could not unseat him for the Democratic nomination, I supported third-party candidate, John Anderson. Carter was not worthy of reelection and Ronald Reagan proved to be as divisive and damaging to the United States as I had imagined at the time. It is safe to say, I was not a fan of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. There are, however a few things worthy of respect as it regards Mr. Carter.

After defeat he established a pattern to which all Ex-Presidents should aspire. He is the best Ex-President America has ever had. He used his celebrity and stature where it could do the most good and forewent notice when the only result would be narcissistic. This was so tough, 36 others could not and have not been able to pull it off.

More importantly to this blog, in the face of much derision, Jimmy Carter introduced America to the frailty of fossil fuel use and the inevitable problems that would bring to the country if changes were not made. In response to what he saw, he delivered speeches to the American public indicating that this problem was “the moral equivalent of war.” He addressed the nation wearing a cardigan sweater rather than the typical suit, he urged Americans to use less energy, reduce the wintertime temperature of homes to 65°F, and changed highway speed limits to a maximum of 55 miles-per-hour. He installed solar panels on the White House and in a speech delivered April 5, 1979 he said:

“The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our Nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.”

Despite a pretty consistent message, the American public ignored almost all of what he said. After his reelection defeat, the shortsighted and backward-looking Reagan removed the solar panels. Surely we could “drill” our way out of this crisis. That was, after all the probable reason for his election. We don’t have to face up to our problems because America is “stronger, number one, unbeatable” or some other diversionary adjective. All we need is a different leader who will change the storyline. A spent “B” movie actor was just the person to do it. We are still reeling from the wayward direction of his leadership.

In high school, we were required to periodically deliver “current events” reports. The job was to find a story in the newspaper, read it and deliver a three or five minute speech about the subject. While I likely did this scores of times, I only remember one. In the early 1970s, I found an article in the Cleveland Press that indicated we would run out of oil by a date in the reasonably near future. As was the case with all current events reports, the class ignored the information, just like America ignored Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter was an untypical politician. He was not a lawyer. Instead, he was an engineer. He looked at information differently than most political people. He knew that fossil fuels were a finite source and hence would need replacement eventually. Imagine if we had listened in 1979 rather than acquiescing to faux cowboy bluster about superiority.

If we would have treated shrinking fuel availability as a true “moral equivalent of war,” America could have led the world in new power source creation, elevated product performance and developed thousands of other energy saving advances. Countries around the world would have been compelled to buy goods from the US rather than the reverse. Perhaps more manufacturing would have remained in America rather than fleeing as a result of the anti-worker policies heralded by Reagan. We would never have had to listen to the foolish “don’t take my light bulbs” arguments by light-brained politicians like Michele Bachmann, Joe Barton and Mike Enzi because we would have been in the middle of a national effort to move beyond. One could also argue that the climate crisis and sustainability drive we are now facing would be of substantially less a world concern had we addressed fossil fuel use when Carter suggested, rather than 40 years later.

While I barely supported the political life of Jimmy Carter, I had grown to respect him since. Under different circumstances and perhaps with different political advisors, he could have been a better president. Nonetheless, he made an impact and proved a very prophetic voice in a central part of my career, energy efficiency. If on this one point, we would have listened more carefully to a man from Plaines, Georgia, we’d all be in a much better place.

Rest in peace, Mr. President.