News Flash: We're Running Out of Oil. Get Used to It.

Every oil company knows that.

Every major automobile manufacturer knows that.

Every politician who got a decent score on a scholastic aptitude test knows that.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney and all their aides know that.

Oil is running out, and it is running out as global demand for available energy resources is growing rapidly. That means per barrel prices and pump prices are going up and will stay up.

All influencing externalities -- global terrorism, political unrest in oil-producing nations such as Nigeria, refinery disruptions caused by Gulf Coast storms, the odd and often suspicious behavior of oil futures markets -- are important. But not one of them changes the essential fact that oil is running out.

So, stop wasting your time worrying about pump prices. If you don't have enough money to hit the road and buy all of the hamburgers and trinkets you want, sacrifice some of the hamburgers and trinkets. If you are in a vehicle that uses lots of gasoline, look at how much you owe on the thing and do the math. You might be better off keeping it and driving less. Ever consider using the Metro?

Do you have a recreational vehicle, a motor home? I love those things! My fellow RVers love them. You know what? High fuel prices, or not, we're still going to roll this summer. We're just not going to roll as far and as long as we used to roll, but we're going to roll!

And when we get back, we're going to put pressure on Congress to do something real for the American people. Enough of this meaningless showmanship of putting the Federal Trade Commission on the dock in search of "price gouging" that no one ever really expected to find. That's just a ruse. We want something real. We want a national energy policy that deals firmly, fairly, sensibly with the reality that oil is running out.