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Long and Short of Oil Price Spike

The high price of oil and gasoline is like the weather - everyone talks about it but no one does anything to fix it. That's certainly the case for the Bush administration. In 2006, President Bush said, "America is addicted to oil," yet his administration did nothing to reduce oil use. Had he acted in 2001, there would be millions more fuel-efficient cars on our roads today, cutting our oil use.

The high price of oil and gasoline is like the weather – everyone talks about it but no one does anything to fix it. That’s certainly the case for the Bush administration. In 2006, President Bush said, "America is addicted to oil," yet his administration did nothing to reduce oil use. Had he acted in 2001, there would be millions more fuel-efficient cars on our roads today, cutting our oil use.

However, there are immediate steps that the Bush administration and Congress can take today to help stem the rising price of oil and also help those Americans hit hardest by rising gasoline prices. Then there are bold, long-term measures that the next president and Congress must embrace to drastically reduce long-term oil use by providing affordable alternatives, which will also increase our energy security.

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