Bush Administration Flailing - Mired in Oil

It is laughable, watching the Bush administration try to look like they are doing something about high oil prices. I must agree with the economists I heard quoted on NPR this morning when they said the only way to curb Americans' insatiable appetitie for gasoline is for the price to be higher. Much higher.

Higher gas taxes are political suicide and aren't going to happen - although that is exactly what led Europeans to build better public transportation, more alternative energy systems and smaller, more efficient vehicles.

Rep. Edward Markey has a proposal that has a lot of merit. Too bad it is about 12 years late.

"Mr. Mineta [Secretary of Transportation] also said the administration had no specific target for fuel economy in mind, declining a call by Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, to support a bipartisan bill calling for a standard of an average 33 miles per gallon, up from the current 27.5.

Quick action by President Bush to adopt that standard would drive down gas prices by showing oil speculators that the United States was serious about conservation, Mr. Markey said."

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