There has been a steady flow of Democratic attempts to peg high gas prices on the Bush administration and his pals in Congress. While it is true that oil CEOs are getting obscene payouts - and there is no way in hell that Republicans will do anything to stop this - there's also no reason gas prices should go down. Furthermore, if Dems win on lowering $3/gallon gas prices in 2006, they'll lose on our $4/gallon gas in 2008.
You can't win an election on gas. Sorry. The price of oil is high because there is absolutely no reason for it to be any lower. Oil production is about to peak in most areas, and geopolitical shocks make for non-market based supply disruptions in other areas. For example, check out this frightening map at
the NYTimes site. Syria (Frickin' SYRIA) is going to be a net oil importer by 2012, implying that the nation has peaked a long time ago in production. Saudi Arabia can't pump out oil any faster than it currently is out of fear that they'll damage the oil reserves (I don't know the specifics, but you can make oil unretrievable if you try extracting too much at once).
Additionally, in the most underreported oil story of the decade, Saudi Arabians have been receiving less money from their oil fields in recent years, causing them to actually get jobs in some instances - in a nation where there is essentially no infrastructure for non-oil jobs. This will lead to instability in the country that invented Wahhabi Islam.
Iraq and Nigeria are their own stories, and the mere fact that Africa has become a major non-OPEC source of oil is frightening, due to Africa's tendency to, um, not have governments.
And that's just supply.
Demand has risen for obvious reasons. Domestically, CAFE standards have been lax for a long time (as in, Clinton was an asshole on this too). We just achieved an industry average of 20 mpg among passenger cars within the past decade, and famously, SUVs and pickup, non-farm trucks are exempt from this number. Commuting across state lines is commonplace, and suburbia and exurbia have become our homes, yet Americans forgot to bring their jobs or cultural events with them to the sticks - meaning we commute seven days a week. Five for work, and two to see our favorite singers or to go eat at a decent restaurant.
On the foreign side, those damn third-worlders took our advice and started to industrialize. China and India have been seeing 7-10% growth (low estimates) for at least a decade now. Furthermore, this is the dirty kind of economic growth, the kind that brings indoor heating and air conditioning, and automotive commuting.
While both states have robust central governments, neither have made a real commitment toward mass transportation, despite having dense urban centers that could easily have fast, efficient, and beautiful transportation systems. (And no, mass transit isn't too expensive for third world governments - Tehran has a great subway system, despite having virtually no incentive not to use oil for transportation.)
What does all this mean? Gas prices are not a political issue. Not even a little. We can't win on gas, because there isn't anything that can be done politically. We need to stop using gas. Democrats can easily be leaders on this issue - Republicans have long been distrusted on energy use, and Democrats have been the party of the environment ever since Republicans let it stop being a bipartisan cause.
Democrats need to do it right. We need to shut up about ethanol because the production of ethanol does more harm to the environment than oil production does, and it's more expensive than gas despite being heavily subsidized by the government. Progressive blogs need to stop acting incredulous when Bush talks about fuel cells, and they need to first embrace Bush's rhetoric for fuel cells, and then secondly the politicians need to crush him with aggressive research and policy for cheaper fuel cells.
And we need to stop pretending there's one fix. Solar would work great on some buses/transit systems, for example. Hybrid cars need to be required for taxi and bus systems. (As an aside, hybrids are not helping as far as private vehicles go. A Prius does much worse than a Corolla on a highway commute.) Diesel got green when we weren't looking, and the mileage for some diesel cars coming out of Europe is astounding.
The point is, one of the arguments against alternative fuel use is the cost of putting in a new supply architecture - what will be the cost of replacing America's gas stations?
The answer needs to be clear: "not much", especially when compared to the alternative. Just start putting something else in the tanks underground.
And set some deadlines. We got to the moon in less than eight years because it got the right funding and the right attitude, despite being BEHIND the Russians in the space race. Tell Detroit that it's not making gasoline-based cars after 2015. They already have concept cars that run on alternative fuel - my friend's cousin has been driving one for about five years.