Chavez could really fu@k us right not if he wanted to, imagine if he cut us off. If gas gets up to $3.00 a gallon, theres gonna be problems, if it gets up to $4.00 a gallon, theres gonna be real big problems.
There is really quite a lot Bush could do. We also have refinery capacity problems. One of our biggest problems is all these differnt gasoline formulations. All we need is two; summer and winter formulations. Bush could order compromises on all the formulations to just two. He could relax regs that hamper new refinery capacity and US drilling & production.
Part of the problem is that the Saudis, etc. traditionally feared that high prices would propel massive research into alternatives. They have that fear no longer, our government in the oil industry pocket.
Once in a while "market solutions" are touted. But the "market" is invested in the oil economy, so that isn't going to happen.