Oil

2002-2022 | 20 years

In this episode, President Bartlet has an open mic gaffe while talking about his new energy bill and refers to his opponent, Governor Ritchie, as a “.22 caliber mind in a .357 magnum world.”

Throughout the episode, the President’s staff is working on his energy plan, and Charlie, who is reading Governor Ritchie’s book, asks CJ why they don’t drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.

In the current day, gas prices are going up, in large part due to Russia’s war with Ukraine. This has sparked debate about different ways to, or whether we should, try to lower gas prices. President Biden proposed a temporary gas tax holiday, meanwhile, the strategic oil reserve dropped to its lowest since 1987 weeks ago according to Reuters.

However, recently oil prices have started to drop due to concerns of a recession. This has caused some oil companies to refrain from harvesting more oil.

Meanwhile, many environmentalists don’t like the idea of harvesting more US Oil, as techniques such as drilling and fracking can have adverse environmental consequences.

All of these ideas conflict with one another, because people at the pump want relief from oil prices, but the US doesn't want to support Russia by purchasing their oil, however companies are timid to produce excess oil and environmentalists are afraid of the consequences of doing so. Meanwhile, the US Strategic Petroleum reserve is getting lower.

Not to mention the bigger picture for younger generations. Oil prices and inflation may go down, but the world is running out of oil. Oil is a non-renewable resource, and it is predicted that by 2052, the world will run out of oil. Given this eventuality, why don’t we use more renewable energy? In the US, only about 12 percent of energy consumption is renewable. The most obvious reason for this is that we can’t control when the wind blows or the Sun shines. However, there are also political problems getting in the way of us making this shift.

One of the great things about The West Wing is that because it is a TV show, viewers can feel immersed in, and come to better understand, these problems that face us.

For those interested in this topic, I am putting a link with the quotes to a game called A President’s Climate Quandary, where you get to play as the President enacting climate legislation.