Forty years of folly the failure of U.S. energy policy.

• Author: Verleger, Philip K., Jr.

Richard Nixon sent the first presidential message on energy policy to Congress in 1971. He began by explaining that, throughout history, the United States had always been able to count on bountiful energy, and then warned that "the assumption that sufficient energy will always be readily available has been brought sharply question within the last year." He proposed a broad program to address the threat of a shortage, mostly by boosting supplies. Included in his proposal were the accelerated leasing of federal lands, the development of a shale oil program, the removal of barriers to constructing electric power plants and transmission lines, and the rapid expansion of the nation's nuclear industry, which included the development of a fast breeder reactor.

Two years later the Arab oil embargo occurred and President Nixon reiterated his call for supply-side initiatives. At the same time, he introduced "Project Independence," a program intended to free the United States from its reliance on imported oil by 1980.

In his 1971 remarks, Nixon cautioned that the United States could not rely on natural gas. Referring to the Clean Air Act amendments that had just become law, he observed that "our present supply of natural gas is limited ... and we are beginning to face shortages which could intensify as we move to implement the clean air standards."

Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush followed in Nixon's footsteps. All accepted the idea that future gas supplies would not be plentiful. All advanced ways to achieve independence, none of which went anywhere. Who, for example, remembers the Synfuels Corporation?

In hindsight, it appears that President Nixon got it all wrong. The United States failed to develop a fast breeder reactor. Shale oil proved impractical. The siting of power plants and transmission lines remains problematic. Hopes for bountiful low-cost nuclear-generated electricity died a harsh death after Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Natural gas supplies, instead of vanishing suddenly, now seem unlimited. In short, the last forty years of U.S. energy policy appear to have been a total disaster. The nation would have been better off had the government taken a hands-off approach.

During those four decades, our focus on energy independence has been the greatest error. The United States has embraced free trade and free markets in every economic sector except energy. Today, we rely on China to supply our needs for critical rare earth elements, key components for almost every...