Admit It: Carter Was 100% Right

“Misunderstood, mocked and maligned” though he was, Jimmy Carter was exactly right about our energy problems and their solutions, Joseph Wheelan writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Way back in 1979, "Carter outlined a program for achieving energy independence." In 2008, "It turns out that Carter was right after all."

“Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977—never,” Carter declared in the “crisis of confidence” speech that cemented his negative reputation. He sought to raise auto mileage standards to 48 miles per gallon by 1995.  All these years later, Wheelan laments, our energy policy seems to be “clinging ever tighter to our oil-based economy and its lucrative profits for the scions of the status quo.” (More Jimmy Carter stories.)