Oil on Their Minds

Last night President Bush devoted 2 minutes out of his 52 minute State of the Union address to urge energy independence for the USA. Of course this is a time-worn theme to which this country's political class has often returned over the past 30 years.

This morning's headline in the New York Times:

Bush, Resetting Agenda, Says U.S. Must Cut Reliance on Oil

The headline in the Chicago Tribune:

Bush: U.S. 'addicted to oil'

This morning the NYT editorial page chimed in with a very long editorial "The State of Energy". In it the Times asserts "The country's future economic and national security will depend on whether Americans can control their enormous appetite for fossil fuels." "American overdependence on oil has been a disaster for our foreign policy." Oill is a seller's market, in part because of America's voracious consumption."

Finally, on today's NYT op-ed page, columnist Thomas L. Friedman's piece in entitled "Addicted to Oil".

I am not so much interested in the content behind these headlines, althought my own view is that the economy can better adjust to high oil prices without the government's help.

What I do find interesting is that it was this small part of the president's speach which has attracted the attention of the country's opinion leaders. And this at the same time that oil prices have nearly returned to the Katrina peak of $70 reached late last August.

It looks to me that we are seeing a "double top" in angst about energy. On a contrary opinion basis this gives me even more confidence that oil prices are headed for $50 from here.