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The return of Jimmy Carter.

Article Excerpt
A DECLARATION OF ENERGY INDEPENDENCE: How Freedom from Foreign Oil Can Improve National Security, Our Economy, and the Environment

By Jay Hakes 252 pages; John Wiley & Sons, 2008

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It seemed to me that the candidates in the 2008 campaign spewed forth more than the usual amount of economic illiteracy. Among, but far from the worst of, these was the bipartisan stream of nonsense about the importance of achieving energy independence. To make matters worse, numerous independent organizations and individuals who should have known better nonetheless supported those arguments. Extensive economic analysis amply supported by historical experience indicates energy independence is a stupid idea. The benefits are nonexistent; the costs huge.

Jay Hakes has accomplished the dubious distinction of preparing by far the best-researched effort in this realm and reaching some of the worst conclusions. Hakes is a political scientist who headed the Energy Information Administration in the Clinton administration and now heads the Carter Library and Museum. Thus, not surprisingly, the book views the Carter years as a golden age from which we unwisely retreated. That is the key problem with the book.

Hakes's subtitle nicely if unintentionally epitomizes the fault with the revived goal of independence: politicians are seeking magic from a Wizard of Oz who is, in fact, a humbug.

INSIDE Hakes divides the book into two main parts, the first of which...

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