In five months, Americans will be going to the polls to elect a new president. Maybe he'll have a long-term energy plan that will work. Because right now, we don't have a plan; if we do, it's not working.

Just stop at a gas station. Remember the good old days of $2 gas? Kiss them good-bye.

Granted, there are no easy solutions to the current situation we're in. Higher fuel prices are having a crippling effect on the economy. Not only are we paying for $4 gas, we're paying more for virtually everything else, and some of that can be traced back to petroleum.

Sure, we can blame the spike in oil prices on China and India. We can grumble at OPEC. We can point our fingers at speculators and even the oil companies.
And we can look in the mirror at our own insatiable demand.

So what does our next president - and Congress - need to do?

- First, push oil drilling in ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In fact, let's drill where we can domestically. It won't solve all of our woes, but it's a start. Our dependency on foreign oil is dangerous. The less we have to rely on the likes of Venezuela and Iran, the better. And with hurricane season around the corner ... well, let's try not to think about the impact of another Katrina.

Tapping the oil reserves in ANWR won't happen right away. And it won't ruin its 19 million acres. The proposed drilling area is about 2,000 acres - that's about the size of the Toyota site near Blue Springs.

Said USA Today in an editorial last week:

"Oil production would inevitably affect the refuge. But studies at Prudhoe Bay to the west, where oil has been produced since 1977 in an area more than twice the size of the one planned for ANWR, show that the effects can be minimized and wildlife protected, particularly with today's newer exploration technology."

- Build more refineries. There hasn't been a new one built in decades, and the ones now are struggling to meet demand. Any disruption in supply, whether caused by man or nature, can be devastating. Again, think of Katrina.

- Promote greater use of renewable energy, which includes solar and wind power. Congress considered mandating the nation's utilities to produce as much as 15 percent of their electricity with renewable energy.

But the sun doesn't shine all day, and wind doesn't blow constantly. What do you do at night and when there's no wind? Mandate all you want, but nature isn't going to play by our rules.

And if you want "clean" energy, we have to consider nuclear power. Look at France, which gets some 80 percent of its power from nukes. Oui, we can learn something from the French. The problem, though, is that building a nuclear plant isn't cheap.

So there you have it - a few suggestions to think about. Not that either President McCain or President Obama will ask for my opinion.

But for the greater good, maybe the next president can work with Congress to develop a sensible, long-term policy.

Now THAT is change we can believe in.