Bush-Cheney Energy Strategy: Procuring the Rest of the World’s
Oil When first assuming office in early 2001, President George
W. Bush’s top foreign policy priority was not to prevent
terrorism or to curb the spread of weapons of mass
destruction—or any of the other goals he espoused later that
year following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon. Rather, it was to increase the flow of
petroleum from suppliers abroad to U.S. markets. In the months
before he became president, the United States had experienced
severe oil and natural gas shortages in many parts of the
country, along with periodic electrical power blackouts in
California. In addition, oil imports rose to more than 50% of
total consumption for the first time in history, provoking great
anxiety about the security of the country’s long-term energy
supply. Bush asserted that addressing the nation’s “energy
crisis” was his most important task as president. He and his
advisers considered the oil supply essential to th