Politicians Afraid To Say We Should Drive Less

"The remedies prescribed by the nation's political leaders this week in response to $3-a-gallon gasoline might hold political value. But they largely ignore the nation's addiction to oil, raising doubts among economists that they will accomplish their goal.

Though everyone agrees that the nation's economic well-being, its environmental health and perhaps its national security depend on reducing its reliance on foreign oil, the election-year rhetoric from Washington carefully avoids any suggestion that Americans -- who hold about 2 percent of the world's known oil reserves and consume about 25 percent -- take any steps to cut back their use.

'We want fossil fuels. We want oil. We want gas. We want nuclear. We want renewable. We want wind,' Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., declared Thursday, reflecting the widely held belief that plentiful energy is an American right."