We aren’t really in a crisis, the price of oil was below where it should have been for a long time, now it’s over corrected, eventually it will swing the other direction. In the meanwhile if the fed gov needed to do something to fix the situation (there is plenty broken, we’re just not in crisis) there’s really only 3 steps necessary:
1 - outlaw local blends, none of the blends various states and municipalities demand accomplish anything good and the fact that there are so many blends reduces the efficiency of refining and increases the costs
2 - drill drill drill, ANWR Gulf of Mexico, there’s a bunch of reserves we can’t get to mostly because of environmental laws, kill those laws and start the drilling, won’t really help the situation now but 5 to 10 years from now
3 - end the bio fuel silliness, the fuel it provides isn’t efficient and it’s driving up the price of important staple foods
There’s probably a few other tweaks, but those 3 would do a lot. But remember we aren’t in a crisis, we’re in a twitch. Twitches happen, that’s what makes life interesting.
Please see my posts #12, and 24.
BTW, your 3 steps are good ones. I would add that biofuels have not been proven to be markedly cleaner than gasoline, either.