Kudos for Seeing the Problem. Now Do Something

I commend you, Mr. President, as I commend Reps. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.), Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-Md.), Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), John Linder (R-Ga.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), and other Republicans and Democrats for recognizing the nation's oil-dependency problem and for supporting legislation to do something about it.

But, sir, although your mind seems to be in the right place, your proposed solutions are not entirely worthy of your appreciation of the problem.

The problem is that both you and the Democrats steadfastly refuse to make it clear to the American people that they are going to have to change their energy-use habits, and that government might have to force them to change those habits through judiciously applied taxes and fees -- higher taxes on gasoline, higher taxes on higher horsepower in non-commercial vehicles, higher taxes on larger personally owned vehicles, and higher charges for driving (especially driver-only vehicles) into congested central city areas during rush hours when most vehicles waste more fuel idling in go-nowhere traffic than they do actually getting from Point A to Point B.

Both you and the Democrats refuse to call upon real estate developers to stop plopping their make-believe, financially lucrative (for them) communities miles away from central work areas without giving a single thought to mass transportation.

Both you and the Democrats refuse to point out to Americans that, although the price of gasoline currently is dropping, we all are paying a prohibitively high price for fuel with the deaths of our countrymen in Iraq and Afghanistan. I mean, seriously, does anyone anywhere believe that we are expending enormous amounts of blood and money in those places in the altruistic pursuit of freedom?

Get real, these wars aren't ideological. These are business-case conflicts.

In short, sir, it's all fine and good to ask the car companies and other manufacturing and business enterprises to deliver more fuel-efficient products and services. It's the right thing to preach against oil addiction. But it's all relatively meaningless if no one in power does anything to wake American consumers from their pleasant dream of cheap oil forever.

Technology alone won't do it, sir. You've got to kick some butt, even if that means you and your fellow butt-kickers get kicked out of office. It's not about popularity polls, sir. It's about leadership.