Driving Somewhere this Summer?

What is our fair president doing about oil prices? I recall one administration ago that a certain president opened up the reserves to undercut our good OPEC friends.

Humm, but the increase in gasoline and crude prices really only helps his buddies in the industry. So I suppose we souldn't expect much from W, Rove and Co. ...that is, unless it means desecrating our wilderness lands in the name of fixing a problem that needs a much more dramatic, short and long term solution.

Slice:

Running for president five years ago, George W. Bush pledged to jawbone energy-exporting nations to keep oil prices low and to win passage of legislation to spur more domestic energy production.

Delivering on either count has proved difficult for the Texas oilman.

Soaring oil and gasoline prices are beginning to take a toll on U.S. economic growth and on Bush's approval ratings. To get his long-stalled energy agenda passed, the president is putting more of his political prestige on the line.

...Still, the president acknowledges that there is little that he or Congress can do to quickly lower gasoline prices, which have climbed past $2.20 a gallon nationwide.

Critics also claim that Bush's energy bill does little to promote conservation or alternate energy approaches, and that he has done little of the lobbying of oil-country leaders that he promised during in his first presidential campaign.

...Jerry Taylor, an energy analyst at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank that advocates less government regulation, said the idea that "jawboning OPEC or arranging for nice relations with OPEC will somehow get us more oil is utter illusion."

"The Saudis will produce as much oil as they think is necessary to maximize revenue. Period," Taylor said.

End slice:

Well, this is not a novel idea - the bottom line is indeed the bottom line. If it makes the already rich more money, then so be it. Of course we could select, as Cesar Chavez once suggested, to boycott. But the average American won't be willing to give up on their wheels, not even for a day.

Or, could we do that one day? Boycott oil and not buy any and not use any for one whole day?