Teepen: Gas prices should fuel serious debate for a sensible energy policy

The pain of rocketing gasoline prices is sharp and is spreading through the economy, enflaming every touch point from transportation costs to food costs and more – aviation, tourism, you name it. We've all had our, "Say what?" moment at the pumps.

But eye of newt, wing of bat, the political nostrums that are being offered are a witch's brew giving off nothing more solid than stage-effect smoke.

Republican presidential nominee-to-be John McCain wants to scrap the federal gasoline tax for the summer months, which populist sop inspired Democratic presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton to boldly declare, "Me, too."

It remained for Clinton's demurring rival claimant, Barack Obama, to take the political risks of talking sense, pointing out that the result would be to increase driving and thus demand, which would push the prices right back up.

President Bush wants to do what he always wants to do whenever someone even whispers the word "energy." He wants to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a favorite of thrill-seeking conservatives who think nature takes up too much room as it is.

Congress, with notable GOP support, has repeatedly refused to do that, and rightly so.

It would take years for Arctic oil to show up at gas pumps, would add not much more than a dollop in the big bucket of world supplies and would irreparably damage one of the nation's ecological treasures.

In the Senate, Democrat Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Environmental and Public Works Committee, wants the government to start selling oil from the 700-million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Note, please, "strategic."

The reserve is our hedge against supply disruptions abroad, especially in the Middle East, even more volatile these days than usual thanks to our misadventure in Iraq and to Iran's nuclear gamesmanship. Is the risk of greater vulnerability to oil blackmail worth shaving a few pennies off the price of a gallon of gasoline?

Back in the first year of Bush's sorry presidency, Vice President Dick Cheney held secret meetings with energy industry executives, who pretty much wrote the administration's energy policy. That policy is now paying off as it was intended to do.

BP and Royal Dutch Shell just reported record first-quarter profits adding up to, thank you very much, $17 billion. Other oil companies will be coming along with similar good news for themselves.

The administration sneered at conservation and beggared alternative fuel research and development. Only this year did Congress, with grudging presidential support, make even tiny-step progress, phasing in higher auto mileage standards and upping the investment in new energy sources.

India and China, whose huge populations have rising incomes, will continue becoming bigger bidders in the market. There's no way to drill our way or otherwise merely scheme our way out of the bind. A wise, broad and durable energy policy, supported by consensus, for once, is essential.

A tip for politicians of both parties, who continue to rummage the issue for transient partisan gains: We won't get anywhere if you keep yelling the same old dumb ideas over and over, only louder.

Tom Teepen is a columnist for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Atlanta.