Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
They held prayer services in St. Louis on Monday -- at gas pumps.
That seems a bit much. But you do sometimes feel hostage to gasoline prices. You have to have gasoline, and you have no control over the price.
Or do you?
The price at the pump has slipped recently, from about $4 to $3.90 or less a gallon in the area.
This is not a trivial matter: 72 percent of Americans polled said high gasoline prices are the greatest threat to the economy. Indeed, they not only hurt at fill-up time, they add costs to manufactured goods and agricultural items.
Some of the recent drop in prices may be simply cyclical, with the approach of Labor Day and the end of the summer driving season, during which prices typically spike.
But part of it, too, is likely a result of consumers driving less. Americans cut back their miles driven by 3.7 percent in May compared with a year before, and about 40 billion fewer miles in the first four months compared with the same time last year. The Wall Street Journal called the cutback "unprecedented."
Americans also are clamoring for more domestic production of oil. A remarkable consensus has emerged: 73 percent in a recent CNN poll say they favor more offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.
"I've never seen the American people as energized about an issue in my 18 years in Congress," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told The Washington Post .
It's quite probable, too, that this very discussion over domestic drilling has contributed to falling prices.
And it's important that we not let slightly lower gasoline prices lull us into complacency again. We've got to make affordable energy a long-term national priority.
Debates over the Iraq War involve the past -- but the deliberation over energy is about our future: our future economy, standard of living and national security.
Voters this fall will be able to choose between starkly different visions for America's energy future (though to be honest, we don't know what the Democratic vision is at this point, beyond saying no to everything).
But just as important as their voter hats, Americans will wear a consumer hat. Their driving habits and choice of vehicles will have a lot to say about how much they pay for fuel.
It appears it already has.
