Gas prices are high. Oil companies are evil. It's the Republicans' fault.

Any questions?

Yes, actually. Instead of Washington engaging in a politically motivated blame game, what if $3-a-gallon gas, instead, became the bipartisan turning point in American energy policy? What if spring 2006 was the moment the United States sobered up and changed course — led by a president brave enough to admit an addiction?

That would better protect pocketbooks in the long run — and national security, too.

"America is addicted to oil," President Bush admitted in what were the most surprising words in January's State of the Union.

The former Texas wildcatter, whose campaigns were financed by the energy industry, whose vice president had ridiculed conservation, who used to be fixated on drilling in the Alaska wilderness, owned up to America's most serious failing.

Pampered by two decades of relatively cheap oil and natural gas, the United States has lazily based energy policy on the assumption of a constant, affordable supply. With just 5 percent of the world's population, it greedily gobbles up 25 percent of the oil. It didn't plan for coming supply disruptions from terrorism, political unrest, and natural disaster. It didn't consider that eventually other countries, particularly rapidly developing China and India, would demand their share of oil, too.

Now, the United States imports 60 percent of its oil, much of it from hostile, unstable countries.

Bush recognized — belatedly — that the country should have been diversifying its supply through clean renewable, domestic fuels such as biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and, eventually, hydrogen.

Bush reiterated those ideas this week, while also trying to appease Congress' panicky insistence on immediate price relief. He suspended deposits to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, eased clean-air rules for fuel-blending, and ordered a price-gouging investigation. Those moves may ease prices by pennies on the gallon, if at all, in some parts of the country.

America needs much bigger, longer-term thinking — something lacking from multiple presidents and numerous Congresses.

Ideas, technology and ingenuity are abundant. Experts, think tanks and academics have paved the road toward a smart energy future, focused not just on supply, but also on reduction of demand through conservation and energy efficiency.

But only politicians can make policy.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., one national security and energy expert, thinks Bush, as an oilman, could provide useful advocacy on energy, just as anti-communist Richard Nixon did on China and Southerner Lyndon Johnson did on civil rights. With a 32 percent approval rating, Bush needs a legacy issue to turn his war-scarred presidency around. Let it be energy independence.

Politicians stand at a historic moment: Consumers are seeking answers on energy. It's time to turn the country in a new direction.

— Philadelphia Inquirer