EDITORIAL OIL (CO)DEPENDENCE CHEAP GAS HAS HIGH PRICE.

GAS prices have soared above $3 a gallon. Americans from Los Angeles to New York are feeling the pinch at the pump and anticipating a pricy summer.

In the spirit of short-sighted election-year politics, lawmakers from both parties have come up with some helpful proposals: Mail a $100 check to all Americans to help with the gas bills! Suspend federal gas taxes for a month or two for a break! Tax the damnable oil companies until they lower prices! Lower environmental safeguards so it's cheaper for oil companies to produce gas and, incidently, pollute the environment!

Meanwhile, once all the oil addicts are temporarily mollified with a $100 buyoff, the GOP can start pushing the need to dig up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for more oil.

While these responses might help calm down Americans worried about the spiking cost of gas, they set us all up for harder times to come. Besides, $100 won't make much of a dent in the cost of the daily commute between the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles.

Wasn't it just the other month when President Bush was telling Americans we have an oil addiction? How does an energy policy of one-time rebates and taxes on oil companies (which will no doubt be passed on to consumers) figure into an energy policy that makes us safer, healthier and economically stable? It doesn't, but rather enables the country's co-dependence on countries gripped by war and fanaticism.

America needs a sane and comprehensive energy policy that reduces dependence on oil while developing new technologies. That might be unpopular since everybody wants cheap gas no matter how high the price in dirty air, congested traffic, global warming.

But we need our leaders to think bigger and develop long-term policies that make life better for generations to come.