The Kyoto treaty would have wrecked our economy, if I can be blunt.

—George W. Bush, 2005.

If I may be blunt myself, of all the fears concerning climate change and addiction to oil, the fear of wrecking our economy is most paralyzing and least substantial. But even if the costs were greater, turning away in fear from the challenges of climate and addiction would sell short America’s past and lay our own responsibilities at the feet of future generations.

The irony of America’s energy policy, from the Kyoto agreement in 1997 through the present, is that by shouldering little responsibility for our energy use, we have once again handed the power of the oil market to OPEC. The connection is straightforward. The Kyoto treaty called on nations to reduce their use of fossil fuel, mainly coal and oil. Reducing the use of oil makes oil less scarce and reduces its price. In fact, as we saw in the previous chapter, reducing the world’s use of oil was what crushed OPEC’s market power for eighteen years.   more