Federal politicians’ irresponsibility and hypocrisy about energy are marvels. First we have the recommendation of Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain that the gasoline excise tax be suspended during the summer. And now, we have the unpatriotic if probably popular decision to halt deposits into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to allegedly cut gasoline prices. Sadly, President Bush on Friday went along with the Congressional demand to stop the deposits.

The amount that would thus not be put into the reserve would have little effect on gasoline prices, with the oil being stockpiled each day just 0.1 percent of global daily use.

The current high oil prices are presented as an “emergency.” No, expensive and insecure oil is here to stay and we’d better adjust accordingly. The only “emergency” is election-year politics.

Anything that stops the building of the reserve makes us more vulnerable to oil-rich nations, many of which dislike us. Our ability to withstand an oil cutoff is weak enough,with the reserve expected to keep us going only 58 days at its present size.

Americans are astonishingly naïve about the energy fix they’ve put themselves into. But you’d hope that their political representatives would occasionally show some statesmanship. After all, they like to call themselves evironmentalists and promoters of energy conservation. But in the face of momentary political consideration, they throw national security out the window.