Anybody got a bike to sell?

If you won’t sell me yours, I can understand.

Most of my summer probably will be spent walking or pedaling just to save some pennies.

And the main reason why is from the expected cost of gas this summer – $3 per gallon.

Last summer I lived in Milwaukee and people almost messed their pants when gas went over the $2 mark.

Prices almost have reached that barrier here this summer. But don’t expect any of your trusty government officials to come to the rescue this summer.

On Monday, President Bush’s team announced the president’s hands are tied when it comes to the rising cost of oil.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters the president was against placing price controls on gasoline and was also against repealing or cutting the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon.

The Bush team plans to announce its energy plan in the next few weeks, but again, don’t expect much help there.

Just like the president’s stance on the energy crisis in California, there is little the government can to do alleviate short-term dilemmas.

Instead, the plan will concentrate on conservation, alternative fuels and possibly the use of nuclear power.

It seems strange that exploring energy alternatives would come out of the mouth of Bush, who had much of his campaign paid for by oil companies.

But it’s just as strange that Bill Clinton didn’t have an energy plan, which called for these things.

While Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich made pejorative use of the word liberal and Clinton synonymous in American politics, Clinton was taking the Democrats right to the middle of Politics Road.

His centrist policies helped him get elected in 1992 and 1996 because public opinion had shifted on federal spending in light of failures with welfare and the huge national deficit.

So even with Mr. Environment, Al Gore, as the vice president, the Clinton administration never addressed the issue of alternative fuels.

The biggest concern for environmentalists and true conservationists is whether Bush will use this jack in gasoline prices as an excuse to tap into the Alaskan Refuge.

There is a lot of dispute about exactly how much oil actually can be retrieved there.

A federal research team determined the most it could find would last the United States six months.

Bush and the Republican congressmen from Alaska contend there is much more oil there.

But both likely would see the profits if they were able to convince the country to open up the refuge, one of the last untouched spots of wilderness in the United States.

Opponents of drilling in Alaska have reason to worry.

When California started its rolling black outs earlier this year, Bush cited drilling in Alaska as a way to help fix the energy crises like these in the future – even though there obviously is not enough oil to deal with the demand.

But here’s hoping the Bush team will take responsible steps toward new energy sources.

In the meantime, anybody got bus fare?