Gaseous expansion

The biggest single issue in the 2008 presidential election can be summed up in a word: economy. Within that broad subject is the hot-button issue of all economic issues: the price of a gallon of gas.
Between staged photo opportunities with the presidential candidates looking bewildered at the pumping process is the truth behind the high price of gas--in short, it is here to stay.
Historically the price of gas only gets higher during the summer months because of increases in demand. For people like me, in high-tax state like Michigan, this means that $4.00 per gallon gas is probably in our future.

Why the gaseous expansion?
The precipitious rise in the price of gas is, like nearly everything staked to the whim of world markets, directly connected to an uptick in the global demand for petroleum.
As demand in rapidly industrializing economies like India and China increases, the world oil supply has become strapped. And while there are numerous untapped oil reserves in both North and South America, it has become more difficult (and expensive) to tap into these reserves.
The United States, the world's largest consumer of oil, simply does not (and cannot in the long term) produce enough oil to sustain its own economy. As a consequence, Americans are stuck in the throes of a global market driven by consumers and speculators on the other side of the world.

What can we do about it?
Hillary Clinton's stump speech now includes a plan for a moratorium on the federal gas tax which, in the short term, would provide very little relief from the high price of gas. In fact, it could have the affect of creating a small surge in demand. Similarly, taxing the windfall profits of oil companies seems short-sighted as well.
What, then, is left for Americans to do? The simple answer is: not much. Americans must consume less oil but, since markets for oil are global in nature, even that would not make much of an impact.
Apart from tapping our own coastal reserves and those reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Americans must demand more investment in alternative fuels to wean our country off foreign oil.
This is a process that should have begun years ago, and I think we all know why that didn't happen.
And so, consume less or develop more are our only two courses of action.