A decent energy bill needs to remove bureaucratic hurdles and require "environmental" laws to automatically expire in five years after enactment and require proven benefits before they can be renewed.
Now is the chance to demand that we build some more oil refineries.
Remove the restrictions and bureaucracy so that companies can build more refineries. The government should not get involved in their construction or operation.
Now is the chance to drill for oil in ANWR.
The real point is that there is no rational reason not to drill there. The restriction is there for purely political reasons. The "environmentalists" are purposfully working to limit supply and drive up costs to limit consumption.
Now is the chance to search for oil on the continental shelf off the west and east coasts.
Remove unreasonable restrictions to allow the free market to address the problem. There does need to be appropriate safeguards to prevent spills and accountability for making sure proper measures are taken.
Now is the chance to rationalize the crazy quilt of gasolines blended for each individual city.
I agree that the different requirements for different areas are wasteful and costly for little benefit. However, the federal government should not have the authority to prohibit state and local governments from placing requirements on fuel.
The lack of interest in standardizing these requirements between states and municipalities should make it clear that those involved in setting them are not interested in a cost effective solution. It's another way that the environmental lobby works behind the scenes to drive up prices.
The only way to fight that is to make the public aware of what is going on, and what it costs them. The public then needs to pressure their state governments to work together to provide a solution that is cost effective while still working to address real issues like high ozone levels in urban areas.
The problem with our energy policy is generally one of too much government interference. Big government almost always tries to create more regulations to fix the problems they created with too many regulations.
The best thing our federal government could do as an energy policy is to significantly reduce their interference in that industry.
State interference in that industry is also a significant issue. The best solution to that is to make sure the states and municipalities bear most of the burden for their own bad decisions. State governments need to not be able to blame things on the federal government so easily and need to accept accountability for their actions.
This will not make the extreme environmentalist lobby happy. Their agenda is not widely supported by the majority of Americans, and they can only force it on enough people through a strong central government which they can concentrate on influencing.
If they have to get real widespread support, they know they will fail.