Washington Just Wasting Time

So once again the House of Reps and the Senate are just wasting our money and everyone's time. Seems like they only things they do is go after sports teams/players and try to break our economic mold. They have no business getting involved in the sports/entertainment industry, so I'll just walk away and save that for another day. I'll stick to a better topic; high gas prices.
They decided that it would be a good use of tax payer money to make the oil execs fly in to Washington to explain why they are simply following the laws of supply and demand. Why are oil companies making record profits? Because Americans, and the world in general, are using more oil every day than ever before. The supply hasn't even come close to keeping up with the demand. Therefore the price of oil will just keep climbing further and further until we stop using so much f'n oil. And those that provide an increasingly rare commodity will keep getting richer and richer all the while. But of course that's not good enough for Washington. They expect the oil companies to just be happy with meager profits so Joe Schmo can fill up his giant, fuel-wasting truck at a reasonable cost while he drives alone on the 50 mile drive to work. And actually, if said oil companies were to intentionally lower their prices and make less money in order to help people, they would be sued by their shareholders. All those CEOs have a board of directors, shareholders, employees, and their own families to answer to. They can't give their employees nice raises if they slash in their profits. The board of directors has to answer to angry shareholders when the stock price and dividends start dropping because they wanted to be nice.
I understand that the problem goes beyond fuel for cars, trucks, semis, etc. Heating oil has seen the same price increases as fuel because of the jump in crude prices. However, being a free-market commodity it faces the same laws of supply and demand. Heating oil and gasoline are coming from the same $130 barrel of crude oil. If the government if so concerned about home heating oil prices they need to make that a government-regulated commodity like water, sewer, and electricity. That's the only way you can ensure that heating oil prices are kept at a reasonable level. Just wait and see what happens to those prices as we get closer to the infamous Peak Oil. Then we'll really have some fun. (No, I'm not saying we're on that doorstep. We've clearly got some room to go, as we do keep pumping an ever-increasing amount of oil every day.)
I've said it before and I'll say it again. If people want to get the price of gas to go down they need to use less of it. Lower the demand and the price will follow. Since we clearly aren't going to drive less or drive more fuel efficient cars, we should focus more effort to alternative fuels. Ethanol, why delivering less energy per gallon and requiring quite a bit of energy to create, is a good start. But even there we would need some extremely expensive upgrades to our current pipelines and gas stations in order to safely dispense alcohol. That shit would eat right through the current infrastructure. But it would be a step in the right direction and demonstrate that people are serious about finding alternatives to gas. Hybrids are another good movement. And as more and more get built, the auto companies learn more about how to make them cheaper and better. Better batteries, more efficient ways of delivering power to the road, more efficient ways of capturing kinetic energy during braking, etc. So there are some positives on the horizon.
If you're hurting from your gasoline bill and need something you can do right now, slow down. Every mph faster you go your mileage drops. In fact, you can estimate that for every 5mph over 60mph you go you're mileage drops enough to effectively cost you an extra $0.20/gal. So if you pay $3.80/gal and drive 70mph, you can instead drive 60mph and effectively pay $3.40/gal. But I'm sure that 10 minutes you shave off your commute by doing 70mph is worth it, right? If that's not good enough, carpool. That'd be a quick way to cut your gas bill in half or more. If you've got 2, 3, 4 people splitting the tab, that's less money than you're all paying today. Not as convenient, but at some point the cost of gas will exceed the convenience fee you're willing to pay to all drive alone. You could also use public transportation. Not a station close enough? Buy a bike to bridge the gap. That also requires some sacrifices, but every inconvenience has a price tag. What's it cost to not ride a bike and shower at work? $100/wk? $200/wk? At some point the cost of gas will make it worth it.
Oh, and that gas tax holiday they're proposing will just make things worse. Lower prices = higher demand = even higher prices when the holiday ends. So if they do it, enjoy your $3 gas or whatever it ends up. Cause you'll be paying $5/gal when that holiday ends and everyone's demand is above what it is right now. Simply economics. How about we show Washington that we do know basic economics and pressure them to stop wasting our times with crap that doesn't actually solve the problem.
Done and done.