Suddenly energy is sexy. From hybrid cars to wind farms to offshore drilling, activists from across the political spectrum are raising their voices to champion their own solutions to a complicated crisis. It is a perfect storm of issues and ideologies, as left-leaning environmentalists seek to curb human-driven global warming, and right-leaning security hawks strive to achieve energy independence.

This is an opportunity for me, I thought, to write in support of one of my favorite issues, a carbon tax as an economically efficient way to lower greenhouse emissions, spur investment in alternative energy, and reduce dependence on foreign oil. And, what’s more, its net impact on ordinary Americans can be minimized by returning tax revenue to citizens in the form of a dividend, offset of other taxes, or something similar.

But when you get right down to it, the resurgent interest in energy isn’t about green technology or national security, is it? It’s about high gas prices. Policy wonks on the right and the left may be happy that there’s now popular support for their issues, but mainstream Democratic support for investment in clean technology and mainstream Republican support for unfettered exploration have more to do with the impact on individuals’ wallets than with loftier notions of climate change or energy security.

A carbon tax, while a wonderful way to address both climate change and energy security, is obviously not a way to reduce the price of gas. And the impact of high gas prices is very real. For an average American getting just over 20 miles-per-gallon and driving 12,000 miles per year, the doubling of the real price of gas over the past five years translates into more than $1000 per year in added expense.

The problem is, there aren’t any good policy options for reducing gas prices. It’s primarily a function of supply and demand. Supply is limited, and worldwide demand is increasing, so the trend is only likely to get worse. In the short run, Americans can cut back on demand, which will bring prices down a bit. Driving more slowly on the highway, keeping tires properly inflated, and driving more fuel efficient cars are all very real ways to save money on fuel, but the days of $1.50/gallon gas are long gone.

Especially in a federal election cycle, rhetoric can get in the way of good sense. John McCain’s proposal for a gas tax holiday was pure pandering, and may not even have reduced gas prices at all, as demand would have pushed the price at the pump up to pre-holiday levels. The new Republican mantra to drill, baby, drill, similarly, has populist appeal, but even if drilling eventually taps all the oil in offshore fields, it will represent only a small percent of worldwide supply. And since oil is sold in a global market, the United States government won’t even control that oil, meaning it won’t contribute to American energy security, and its impact on fuel prices will be minimal. Offshore drilling might – might – make sense as part of a broader energy policy, but it doesn’t deserve to be center stage, and it won’t reduce gas prices.

Nothing, really, is going to reduce gas prices in the long run. Transportation itself can become cheaper, though, and that’s really what an ordinary citizen is buying when they buy gas — transportation. Driving a fuel-efficient vehicle lowers the cost of transportation — double your miles-per-gallon and you literally cut your fuel cost in half. Driving more slowly lowers the cost of transportation, and doesn’t require purchasing a new vehicle. A more fuel-efficient vehicle doesn’t have to mean an expensive hybrid (although the price of these is coming down). It can simply mean a car with a smaller engine.

There are good reasons to wean ourselves off of carbon-based fuels. They contribute to the scientifically-proven problem of climate change, and one of them — petroleum — leaves us dangerously dependent on sources in some of the world’s most volatile areas. There’s no one answer to solving these problems. But these are the problems that an energy policy should address, not whether or not gas is too expensive.

I still favor a carbon tax as a major component of an energy policy, and I’ll write more about it soon. But if what we as consumers are most acutely worried about is high gas prices, then we need to take the matters into our own hands and reduce our own consumption of gasoline.

http://www.gasbuddy.com/ and become a Gas Price Spotter at GasBuddy.com and help your neighbors find low-priced gas.

Also http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/hybrid_sbs.shtml  to learn about hybrid vehicles, including the latest tax incentives.

Dan Goodman is a veteran of the digital media industry and an avid follower of politics and social issues. He has particular interests in foreign policy, energy, environment, and education, but being opinionated, he’ll write about almost anything. He’s also passionate about finding common ground among seemingly divergent viewpoints. As a graduate student, he founded and edited Spectrum, a journal of student opinion at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and was later a volunteer for Youth Building Bridges, a DC-area group helping teens from different social and ethnic backgrounds explore their differences and what they have in common.