UPI reports:
“If we could conserve even 5 percent of gasoline we would see in a period of six to eight weeks a significant difference in the price of gas,” [Shell Oil President John] Hofmeister told the Infragard National Conference, a critical infrastructure protection convention in Washington. “The political leadership has chosen not to actively promote conservation. So we continue to produce to demand and that’s what keeps prices up,” Hofmeister said. . . . .
Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed conservation as a viable government strategy to the nation’s energy problems in a speech in 2001, when gas was reaching about $2 a gallon.
“Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy,” Cheney said.
Cheney said the issue had to be addressed by increasing the supply of energy.
