Oil Pressure

President Bush made a couple of moves to help ease current oil prices, relaxing EPA regs to let more oil move around and halting adding oil to the National Reserve. These moves will probably help short term by dropping oil a buck or two a barrel and will help quell the grumbling by fellow Republicans and angry constituents.

The real issue is our dependence on foreign, unstable oil sources. Alternative fuels and technologies will ultimately be the answer but with the movement toward cleaner more efficient solutions just now gaining meaningful momentum, solutions with real, tangible impact, are years away.

What the U.S. really needs is a cogent and well thought out energy policy that shares bargaining and alternative fuel research efforts with other oil importing nations. It's time to get our heads out of the middle-eastern sand and get the country moving toward a cleaner, energy efficient future where we are not forced to meddle in Middle Eastern politics to protect our vital energy/oil interests. It almost an old-school conservative idea.
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