While none of us like to funnel more of our daily bread towards paying for gasoline, seeing the pump spin past $50 is a necessary evil for economic and environmental reasons.

The Environmental Economics has a funny and insightful diatribe about how Congress is proposing bills to counter the rising price of gas.

Democrats are pandering to their constituents by drafting an unenforceable bill that creates penalties if oil companies raise prices for vague artificial reasons. Some Republicans are countering with proposals to cut taxes for consumers and refiners.

I couldn't have summarized the situation better than EE's Tim Haab:

"Supplies are decreasing--both temporarily through unexpected refinery shut-downs and permanently through stock depletion. Demand is increasing--both in the U.S. and worldwide. Both of these will cause gas prices to rise and that's good. If gas prices don't rise, we will consume gas even faster and run out sooner. "