George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 16

< Episode 15 >

The President’s mornings weren’t always spent at the White House in Washington D.C. When diplomatic duties called, he might wake up in a big city hotel in New York or elsewhere.

“Did you bring it?”

Aides brought a fancy teacup containing what amounted to several months’ salary for an average office worker in dissolved form. The expensive beans yielded a fragrant acidity and a refreshing taste, reminiscent of tangerines, that ordinary coffee could never match.

Of course, I refused it. “You can have it.”

I really couldn’t understand expensive coffees at all. I agreed that the aroma was excellent, but frankly, most of them tasted strange. Maybe I should criticize the sad state of society that had become accustomed to instant coffee rather than real coffee, but I just liked coffee with syrup and sugar.

So, instead of a beautiful coffee cup, I held a paper cup with the hotel’s logo printed on it. The brand was Folgers. It was an instant coffee that everyone in America, young and old, enjoyed. It had a 160-year tradition, but I didn’t know much about that. With a few spoons of sugar and cream, it was all the same to me.

Of course, as the President of the United States and the owner of enormous wealth, I could have indulged in all kinds of fancy coffees, and my body seemed to crave them, but somehow, I kept reaching for sweet instant coffee with three spoons of sugar. My body accepted it, but my tongue didn’t.

Thanks to that, I seemed to have a reputation among the hotel staff as a down-to-earth president, though there were definitely people who cynically said I was just trying to create an image.

And then coffee would get on my shirt.

You could put any color on white clothes, but it was hard to remove the color that was already on them.

First impressions were the same. Once a blank slate is colored with a desired color, it is difficult to apply another color. If you conduct a survey of Americans today, you will find some people who don’t even know who is in charge and making laws. I didn’t want to disparage their political apathy, but at least if you want to avoid getting the short end of the stick in life, shouldn’t you know how the country you live in is run?

Back to the point. There were still many blank slates left in America who didn’t even know what color to put on themselves. Maybe these types would never be interested in politics, but they were only uninterested in politics, not in people.

Since 9/11 and Shock and Awe [the initial bombing campaign in the Iraq War] were so exposed through the media, it must have been clear to them who I was. At least in the distant future, decades from now, when they mention me, even if they don’t know my name, they’ll say, ‘The guy who arrested and executed the mastermind behind 9/11!’

In fact, it was practically a capture operation, but it could also be called the War in Afghanistan, but to the outside world, it had to be a capture operation. About 10 years after my term ends, I can admit it was a war around that time.

Even if it was colored with a different color, if my color was black, I could completely paint over the other color.

A righteous and patriotic president. George H. W. Bush’s son.

Wasn’t he the most American president who always advocated democracy and justice?

“Something’s still wrong.”

I wasn’t that American. I was born and raised on rice, but even though I was living apart from that rice, I didn’t really miss rice and kimchi. I could guess the cause, but I couldn’t easily guess the changes or results it would bring.

I’ve always thought that the worst thing in life is when you know you’re going to get screwed, and that’s exactly what it was like now. As the days went by, world affairs seemed to be within my grasp, but my own changes were unpredictable.

I couldn’t go to church now and yell at the pastors, ‘My taste is changing, so fix it right now! Exorcist!’ Besides, I was a person who trusted a 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun more than blessed holy water and a golden crucifix.

“What’s so strange?”

“The whole world is strange.”

If God were truly omnipotent and created this world with just a snap of his fingers, why didn’t he make it so that good is rewarded and evil is punished, and why was evil born? In my opinion, he must have transcended the concept of good and evil or was bored and made it haphazardly.

Ah, wait. Is that why there’s an afterlife?

Then is this actually the afterlife?

“Mr. President?”

“I was just thinking nonsense. How many minutes until the schedule?”

“Exactly 15 minutes left.”

“The data isn’t very satisfactory.”

I gave instructions as I knew them, but it seemed that the investigation period was too short, and I didn’t accumulate as much data as I wanted. But so what? The biggest one came out.

“How is the increase in fire personnel and expected promotion going?”

There was 9/11 just recently, so there would be approval but no opposition. The unprecedented plane terror was a shock and horror to Americans. Of course, we had to return it in kind. The shock and horror went straight back to the Middle East, and the hellfire took the form of missiles and turned the entire Middle East and Afghanistan into purgatory. I hope the hellfire doesn’t spread, but it’s probably impossible to prevent it from spreading at all. Then what the United States can do now is to try to extinguish the spreading fire as much as possible.

The United States will make Afghanistan the largest country in the Middle East, and in fact, it will be difficult to escape the role of the United States’ henchman for at least half a century. Whether they like it or not, factions will arise at some point. Originally, people are like blind men, and if they smell money, they just follow it.

If it were a proper country, it would try to minimize its overseas influence on its own country, but Afghanistan now could not even properly manage its own territory unless it reached out for foreign aid right away. The word ‘inevitable’ fit so well.

“They said they can submit the estimate and plan by tomorrow afternoon. It’s about increasing their budget, so everyone is burning their eyes. Frankly, I’m a little worried that they might ask for too much.”

“It doesn’t matter if they ask for too much. Our country is so big. Thanks to that, the police budget and fire budget are always insufficient.”

Besides, Katrina [a devastating hurricane that hit the US in 2005] will soon lose her way during my term and come to Central and South America. If we neglect to treat a guest from the wealthiest country in the world, how much criticism will we receive from the world?

“Rebuild the New Orleans levee well, too. Got it? If a hurricane comes, that’s the last bastion.”

“Hurricane? I don’t understand that, but it’s an order, so I’ll implement it by presidential decree. Safety first, always.”

“Good. Let’s go in now.”

“There are still 10 minutes left.”

“Originally, people who are going to be great come 10 minutes early.”

Representatives from ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, etc. were seated. In some cases, the president or chairman came directly, and at least a director-level executive came.

“Everyone is present.”

The chief of staff whispered that everyone was present, and his expression seemed to embody the word ‘dejected’. To make a comparison, it was like the expression of a child who received a disappointing gift on Christmas.

“There are 10 minutes left, but everyone seems to be here. Aren’t you all busy people?”

Everyone stood up and tried to shake hands with me all at once, but I refused. After hearing my story today, they’ll be rolling their eyes.

“Now, before we begin, the person who was originally scheduled to come here was Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, but I forced it a bit. Isn’t that how power is used? Anyway, let’s skip the introduction. I believe you all know why you’re here.”

The PPT [PowerPoint presentation] that I drafted and the young blood of the Department of Energy, who were skilled in computers, all stuck to and organized was released to the world through a projector beam. I had touched PPT a bit in college, but the level of people who had touched it dozens or hundreds of times in the field was different.

“Shale layer. The future of America is there.”

* * *

Texas. There was greed there.

The current president was a smart man. Even though the Geological Survey was there, he mobilized all the companies to directly witness the goods in Texas. An estimated 20 billion barrels of unconventional oil in the shale layer, 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. What drilling company in the world wouldn’t covet this?

“I was born in Connecticut, but I grew up in West Texas. As you know, I spent my youth in the oil industry. I’ve done odd jobs painting, and I’ve worked as an intermediary while wrestling with the county’s land register. The worst of them was running around Texas myself.”

“Let me be clear. I have seen the future in Texas since I was young. It was impossible at the time, but I was convinced that America’s great pioneering spirit would one day extend deep into the earth.”

“To be honest, how did you know?”

One of the presidents opened his mouth with a voice mixed with question and curiosity.

“I’ll leave that to your imagination. The important thing is that there’s a lot of black gold sleeping there, isn’t it?”

But George Bush, who couldn’t say that he had seen it from the future, dismissed their suspicions.

“Surely, it’s not a friendly joint development, is it?”

20 billion barrels. It was big, but if this many companies all flocked to it, 20 billion barrels would run out in an instant, and when the oil gushing out of the drills started to leak, everyone would be frustrated.

The geological survey meeting was actually close to an excuse, and this was actually close to a private bid. In the future, the bidding will be held publicly, but the results will be determined here.

No matter how much the companies ran wild, they were just companies. The land of freedom? It was an American business that couldn’t do anything if the country didn’t want it.

“To put it bluntly, if you can meet the conditions I set, you can cooperate with each other.”

Cooperation! It was truly a laughable thing. Among the drilling companies and oil companies here, there were companies that couldn’t control their spending, but there wasn’t a single company that was trying to save money.

“Since you have positions, and since you’re here, I have no doubt that you know how the shale layer is being developed.”

“Hydraulic fracturing.”

“That’s it.”

As expected, it was a trivial condition. The only condition was to have hydraulic fracturing technology. Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a method of spraying water mixed with chemicals and sand. In simple terms, it was a way to break the shale layer with water.

“But you know, if you take out what’s in the ground as it is, there will be a cavity inside, and if this collapses, won’t there be land subsidence? In addition, it uses chemicals, so it will also pollute the water quality. It may be good in the short term, but in the long term, I think it’s a really short-sighted method.”

“But Mr. President. There’s no other way.”

“That’s true with the existing method. But what if we use propane gas instead of water?”

“Propane gas?”

Gas fracturing was a new technology that was still under development in 2019. Also called next-generation fracturing, it was a method of crushing the shale layer by putting gel-type propane gas instead of the existing mixture. In simple terms, it was literally replacing water mixed with chemicals with propane gas. Gas fracturing completely escaped the chronic problems of water pollution, land subsidence, and fault lubrication problems inherent in hydraulic fracturing. But not all methods have only advantages.

Money. It cost a damn lot of money.

Oil companies only needed to get approval from the government, so they preferred the existing hydraulic fracturing method, which was cheap and didn’t need to be developed further. Even the government, which had to rely on it, turned away from it, so no one had the will to develop it, and the development speed was slow.

“To tell you the truth, there’s another deposit of 46 billion barrels and 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. I had the Geological Survey investigate this.”

There was no reason to delay any longer. Gas fracturing or whatever, I had to bid somehow.

“How about developing only what has been discovered first, and then developing gas fracturing using propane gas based on the data accumulated from the first oil field?”

Darren Woods, the chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, who had almost finished calculating the profit and loss from the beginning, came up with a realistic compromise.

It was a common-sense proposal that anyone could accept. But in fact, there was a trap in that statement. First of all, it would take almost half a year to improve the hydraulic fracturing method used in that oil field, and it would take 2 or 3 years for the equipment to run properly.

If it dragged on like that, Bush’s term would end first, and the lobbyists that the oil company had planted would take care of the rest. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t research gas fracturing. Environmental groups were extreme, so if they showed this much sincerity, the environmental groups would shut their mouths for the next few years. That was the same for George W. Bush.

Could there be a more perfect trap than this?

“Hahaha!”

George Bush laughed with satisfaction.

“Haha, then I’ll take it that way….”

“Of course not.”

Maybe he laughed because he was dumbfounded.

“Complete gas fracturing within 2 years. It’s a national project.”

“2 years!?”

“That’s ridiculous!”

Seeing those who were called veterans foaming at the mouth in shock made me feel so refreshed. Frankly, I don’t think they can complete it in 2 years, but anyway, I have to do this to do it properly, right?

“If you keep spouting that kind of nonsense after 2 years, I’ll cover it all with concrete and build a military base.”

“Non, nonsense?”

“Do I have to crack one of your heads to get you to tell the truth?”

“No, how can you negotiate like this!”

Because it’s not negotiation, it’s intimidation.

“You all know that if I put my mind to it, I can definitely drag one of these companies into ruin even after my presidential term ends.”

It is customary for presidents to retire from politics after their term ends, but the position of former president was not just for show. As the head of the country, he knew everything from the world’s affairs at the time to even the most trivial secrets. If such a person started to move with determination, he could definitely ruin a company.

Specifically, if you expose things like ‘lobbying’ or ‘corruption’ in the news.

“Now, who wants to bid higher first?”