No worries: I have solved the energy crisis

Wasn't really that hard, either...

Sen. Saxby Chambliss' office sent out a release this afternoon about him reading letters from Georgians complaining about gas prices on the floor of Congress. This was the one I felt best about making fun of:

Senator Chambliss, I'm fed up with Congress ignoring the will of the American people. Stop playing politics and act on the will of the people. We've been demanding that you drill and use our 3 trillion barrels of oil. We need other resource avenues that the last three administrations haven't addressed. Stop the partisan politics and pass the will of the people. The American people do not want a socialistic society, period. Fix the problem.

I'm working to confirm whether this letter was written in crayon, and I'm raising money to fund the search for a synonomous phrase to replace "the will of the people."

But the press release got me thinking: What's the per-mile reimbursement for members of Congress? My answer: I don't know. But the IRS lists the "standard mileage rate" at 50.5 cents a mile for business travel.

For the record, that's 20.5 cents more than my company pays, and ours just went up 2 cents.

If I were a particularly brilliant public relations stunt thinker-upper, and a member of Congress, I might announce that I was turning my mileage reimbursement checks over to a deserving constituent until Congress stops playing politics and acts on the will of the people.

Of course, I would also cancel my party's national convention and donate the millions those things cost to put on to some combination of charities, including one or two in the city I just took all that hotel business from.

But, then, I'm crazy like that. To continue from Sen. Chambliss' statement on the Senate floor:

First of all, it is imperative that we look for additional resources inside the United States… Secondly, we simply have to have more gas refined in this country. ... We have not seen a refinery built in the United States in the last 25 years. ... The third thing we need to do is continue down the road of research and development of alternative fuels -- alternative fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel. ... There is one other area -- that is the area of conservation. We simply have to move down the road of making sure that alternative vehicles are available for those individuals who really want to implement conservation measures from a personal household perspective. We have a bipartisan effort under way to help solve this problem.

p.s. - The line "wasn't really that hard, either," where am I stealing that from? Because I know I didn't write it.