Rivers swollen from snowmelt hurl themselves over the falls. Tenuous tulips take a peek after lengthy hibernations. Motorists scream obscenities at gas pumps. Ah, spring!

This year, the boiling point is $2.80 to $3 a gallon. Last year at this time, drivers were steamed at prices in the $2.20 to $2.30 range. In 2000, it hit $1.80 a gallon, which triggered calls to repeal the 4.3 cent federal fuel tax that was tacked on in 1993.

See a pattern here? Prices are rising. Motorists’ behaviors are static. If that continues, the tipping point for tempers will be $3.50 or so next spring.

Politicians pretend not to know the realities of world energy markets, because they’re scared witless of voters. They don’t want to tell us that we’re part of the problem and the key to the solution. So they pander shamelessly.

President Bush has even joined this round of panicking by calling for the temporary suspension of environmental controls on fuel production and reminding state attorneys general that they can look into whether price gouging is the culprit. Like they need reminders on how to score quick political points by bashing oil companies

Congressional Republicans have come up with a more brazen solution: handing Americans $100 rebates in the hopes that they’ll chill out for the fall elections.

Speaking of those elections, congressional Democrats are proposing a temporary suspension of the federal gasoline tax. That wouldn’t even get motorists back to last year’s gripe price, but it would mean a large drain on the federal treasury.

All of these “fixes” have two things in common: they are short-term and they completely ignore why we’re in this mess in the first place:

We use too much gasoline.

Yes, it’s easier to rip the oil companies, but what has that ever gotten us? The Federal Trade Commission has conducted multiple investigations for price gouging in the past decade and come up empty. It will soon report on its latest probe, which centered on price increases after Hurricane Katrina. Don’t get your hopes up.

If you think the FTC is merely a useful idiot in this uniquely American tale of corruption, consider that Canada has sicced its regulatory Mounties on the “oil barons” and come up empty, too.

More than any other country, we demand oil. And we demand that it be relatively cheap. But world supplies have peaked. The oil that’s easy to find and cheap to pump has been discovered. At current rates of consumption, supply will never again exceed demand. Even the vaunted supplies in Alaska, off our shores and embedded in Rocky Mountain shale are finite.

If political leaders were brave, they would tell us there is no short-term fix. Then they would adopt measures that trigger long-term conservation and the production of alternative vehicles and fuel sources. That’s not likely to happen, so let’s think for ourselves.

Are we taking every realistic step in our own lives to reduce energy consumption? If we’re honest, most of us would answer “not even close.” So let’s take some personal responsibility and perhaps our nation’s leaders will wake up, race to the front and begin leading us again.