President Bush was once a Texas oilman, albeit not a particularly successful one. He was in the business in the mid-1980s, a bleak period for harvesters of fossil fuels.

In the energy boom year of 1981, crude oil prices topped $35 a barrel – then an all-time high. But by the spring of 1986, Americans had embraced energy conservation with a vengeance, and the OPEC oil cartel was in disarray. To the amazement of many, oil prices plunged below $10.

That was a colossal downer for George W. Bush and other denizens of the oil patch. But Bush might be ecstatic to see $10 oil right now.

His sinking poll ratings, torpedoed by the unpleasantries in Iraq, have been further deflated by Americans’ fury over gasoline prices topping $3 per gallon. Ballooning pump prices are the offspring of oil reaching $70 to $75 a barrel – a record high. Since Bush became president, gasoline prices have roughly doubled.

He attempted last week to calm the storm by offering some conspicuously lame countermeasures.

He pledged to pursue claims of “price gouging,” even though he knows that such investigations typically don’t amount to squat. Soaring gas prices customarily are triggered by market and political forces rather than whispered conspiracies.

Global oil demand is a robust 85 million barrels a day. It hasn’t declined even in the face of a sustained escalation in energy prices.

The world’s population has topped 6.5 billion. More people means more energy consumption. Millions of Chinese, Indians and residents of other fast-growing developing nations are buying cars, computers and other energy-eating products for the first time.

Some petroleum production in the Gulf of Mexico still hasn’t been restored since Hurricane Katrina’s rampage. Oil facilities are sabotaged regularly in Iraq and Nigeria. Political tensions surrounding Iran have upped oil prices in futures markets.

Bush proposed putting less oil into America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, providing an additional 10 million to 12 million barrels of supply. But that’s peanuts. We consume approximately twice that amount daily.

The president has implored Congress to repeal $2 billion in oil industry tax breaks over 10 years. Once again, peanuts. Those tax breaks amount to $200 million annually for an industry in which a single company, Exxon Mobil, last year recorded 180 times that amount – $36 billion – in after-tax profits.

Bush suggested relaxing clean-air rules that might contribute to tighter fuel supplies and higher gas prices. Does that mean we exchange a slight reduction in pump prices for dirtier air? That’s not an alluring prospect, especially in metropolitan areas most polluted by ground-level ozone (which can spawn asthma attacks and worsen the misery of bronchitis, emphysema or other respiratory ills).

Bush’s political dilemma over gas prices is considerably of his own making.

Ever since he became president in 2001, he and other GOP leaders have foolishly opposed adopting substantially higher CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards for passenger vehicles. Bush has supported only two timid increases, even though significantly raised CAFE standards could accomplish more in a relatively short period of time than any other measure to curb gluttonous U.S. energy consumption.

If Bush had pushed for higher standards five years ago, when he enjoyed surplus political capital, America probably wouldn’t be faced with $3 gas now.

Liberal Democrats and environmental groups deserve blame for their knee-jerk opposition to expanding domestic oil and natural gas exploration. I would gladly support limited drilling in a small part of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and parts of the eastern Gulf of Mexico in exchange for higher CAFE standards. We also should look at building better-designed, more cost-efficient nuclear power plants.

Bush is correct in saying that the government can’t significantly alter energy prices overnight. Hydrogen vehicles might not be feasible for 20 to 30 years, if then. But we individually can contribute by doing everything from buying more fuel-efficient vehicles to embracing energy conservation in our homes.