February 1999 Vol. 220 No. 2  Editorial

Thomas R. Wright, Jr.,  Editorial Director

Bush should take the lead

The idea came while watching news coverage of his inauguration. There was George W. Bush, beginning his second term as Governor of Texas, and possibly beginning his candidacy for President of the United States. This is significant because Texas is the most prolific oil and gas producing state in the U.S., which happens to be the third largest oil producer in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia and the FSU. In fact, if Texas were a country, it would rank 13th in world oil production and if it were a member, it would rank 7th in Opec.

With so much oil and gas production, it follows that Texas gets a huge share of its government revenue from same — there are direct royalties paid on production from state lands, severance taxes on private production, property taxes, sales taxes on items purchased by the thousands of people working in the industry, etc., etc. So it would seem that as governor, George W. would be well aware of the fact that oil prices have collapsed and will be causing state revenues to decline significantly, if they haven’t already. And obviously, W. will want to keep the Texas economy healthy, even if he does bail out of his state commitment early to run for president, because to do less would look bad on his resume.

Considering all of the above, Dubyuh (that’s Texan* for W.) would seem to be the perfect individual to lead the charge in doing something about the price of oil. And there are a few more reasons, such as:

• First, Dubyuh is, of course, the son of George Herbert Walker Bush, who orchestrated the rescue of the Kuwaitis and kept the big, bad Saddam from taking over Saudi Arabia as well. Surely Dubyuh could get George The Elder to whisper into a few royal ears, relaying the fact that their insistence on maintaining market share is putting junior’s state in peril. One would imagine that The Elder still holds buckets of IOUs for saving the sheiks’ butts and could cash in a few in return for reasonable production cutbacks (and moderately higher prices).
• Second, if Dubyuh is successful, he could parlay his actions into substantial contributions for a "possible" run for the presidency. Obviously, Dubyuh will have to be very discrete in doing this so as to avoid alienating voters on the left and right coasts who think that only good things come from low oil prices.
• Third, Dubyuh’s wife and daughters are less than ecstatic about the possibility of becoming the "first family." If their common sense should prevail over his ego and he stays in Texas, then maybe he would be less inhibited in advancing his state’s cause.

Realistically, however, Dubyuh won’t do a darn thing because, despite all the utterances of indecision, he is running for president. He has already made the obligatory trip to Israel to line up support from the Jewish community, and he continues to hold discussions with potential money-raisers from Florida and California.

As far as we know, he made no mention of the state’s severely depressed oil industry, or what he intends to do about it, during his latest inaugural address. He’s also sure to have noted that many of industry’s movers and shakers overlooked the fact that The Elder ignored their plight when he was president, with no apparent repercussions.

By now, you’re probably asking yourself why we brought all of this up, if we don’t think Dubyuh will do anything. It’s simple: As Governor of Texas, he sure as hell ought to be doing all in his power to help his constituents. If he doesn’t, then shame on him (and us if we don’t make him squirm).

Do as I say... Governments are notorious for enforcing laws on common citizens while providing reasons why they don’t apply to government officials. Just such a case is described in a recent notice from the Mountain States Legal Foundation’s president and chief legal officer, William Perry Pendley. He noted that U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said she wouldn’t seek appointment of an independent counsel to investigate President Clinton’s alleged campaign-financing abuses because he had no intent, at the time of the alleged activity, to commit the elements of the crime.

Well, tell that to Bobby Unser, who was prosecuted for a crime for which it is readily apparent that he lacked criminal intent. Here’s the story:

Two years ago, Mr. Unser left for a snowmobile ride on a clear December day. While riding in a national forest in southern Colorado, the weather turned, and a dangerous blizzard swept down on Unser and a friend. After becoming disoriented and lost, they had to abandon their snowmobile in the deepening snow. After spending the night in a snow cave, the pair hiked for 18 hours through waist-deep snow to get back to civilization.

After the feds charged him with the crime of operating a snowmobile within a federal wilderness area, Mr. Unser said that he had not been in a wilderness area, but if he were, he was there out of necessity or as a result of an emergency. In other words, he had no intention of being within the federal wilderness area, an element of the crime. The federal prosecutors disagreed, and so did a federal district court — Unser was convicted of despoiling a wilderness area without proof of criminal intent.

Freudian slip. The Far Eastern Economic Review reports that Gulf Indonesia generously sponsored bags, pens and notepads provided during the Indonesian Geophysicists’ Annual Conference. Given the current state of business, the slogan Gulf added to the give-aways was certainly apropos: "Gulf: Sinking to new lows in South Sumatra."

* Actually, this moniker was coined by liberal columnist Molly Ivans of Austin, Texas, who comes up with some funny stuff, despite her political leanings.

Copyright © 1999 World Oil
Copyright © 1999 Gulf Publishing Company