Mostly Hot Air on Gas

President Bush's challenge this morning was to address the problem of skyrocketing gas prices in a way that would telegraph to the public that he is concerned and is on the ball.

Whether he succeeded or not will depend on how his speech gets covered today and tomorrow. But by any reasonable measure, he was short on substance.

The biggest news was that after insisting repeatedly for years that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should only be used for emergencies, the White House partly reversed course today.

While stopping short of actually tapping the reserves, Bush ordered a temporary halt to any further deposits -- a move that will slightly increase supply available to consumers.

Dow Jones reports that the move would free up about 70,000 barrels a day otherwise destined for the reserve in the coming weeks.

By my calculations, that's about one third of one percent of the total U.S. consumption of about 20 million barrels a day -- anyone want to call that a drop in the bucket?

The other news, which the White House first announced last night, was that Bush has ordered the Justice and Energy departments to investigate possible price-gouging.

But Bush has been touting administration anti-gouging enforcement for more than a year now, and there is no indication this new announcement is anything but a feint on his part.

John D. McKinnon, John Fialka and Jackie Calmes write in the Wall Street Journal: "To be sure, calling for investigations doesn't promise much in the way of enforcement action, according to industry officials.

" 'This is a Groundhog Day-type thing where we go through this again and again about what price gouging is,' said Robert Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association."

And in an unusual evening gaggle yesterday, lame-duck spokesman Scott McClellan was asked if Bush had any reason to suspect market manipulation.

McClellan responded: "Well, gas prices are high right now, and that's why you want to make sure there's not."