The days of $3 per gallon gasoline seem like a distant memory now don't they? The average gas price in the state of South Carolina has dropped 10 percent in the past month and 25 percent since the summer. In some parts of the state, gasoline is selling for $1.85 a gallon!

This is indeed a welcome change for consumers and for the state economy as well. Higher energy prices act like a hidden tax, raising the price of most products and increasing costs for manufacturers and farmers. Higher prices also discouraged people from traveling, which hurts our state's tourism business in popular destinations like Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head.

South Carolina has typically had some of the lowest gas prices in the country -- in part because we have one of the lowest state gas taxes -- so our economy may not have suffered like other states, but there's no question that our people and businesses suffered.

Why are gas prices down? Some people would have you believe that President Bush and the oil companies conspired to bring prices down weeks before a heated election. Such a suggestion is ridiculous. Prices have fallen because the price of crude oil has fallen from more than $75 a barrel in July to about $58 dollars a barrel today due to the mild hurricane season, the end of the summer driving season and easing of political tensions in the Middle East.

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Gas prices could easily return to record highs with a major storm in the Gulf Coast, an escalation of the nuclear standoff with Iran or a colder than expected winter in the United States. OPEC, the oil cartel that produces about 40 percent of the world's oil, has also indicated that it might scale back production by one million barrels a day in order to increase the price per barrel. While it's nice to see gas prices closer to $2 a gallon rather than $3, the recent drop in prices could be short-lived unless we begin to explore comprehensive reforms to our energy policy.

As gas prices were going up this summer, Republicans and Democrats alike scrambled for a quick fix. On short notice, the only solutions offered were ill-conceived tax hikes or ineffective tax credits. High gas prices were never a tax problem, but rather a market problem of too little supply to keep up with too much demand. We should stop trying to play politics with this issue and address the problems.

The United States simply does not produce enough oil and gas to meet demand. Congress would be wise to increase supply by allowing new domestic oil exploration, encouraging the growth of alternative fuels, diversifying our energy supply and increasing our nation's refining capabilities.

Twenty-five years ago, there were more than 300 oil refineries in the United States. Today, there are fewer than 150. The United States has not had a major new refinery built since 1976, and the very politicians that blamed higher gas prices on the Bush administration and the oil companies have opposed the construction of new refineries or expansion of existing refineries. This makes the United States overly dependent on imported oil and gasoline.

This is not just a federal responsibility. My colleagues in Columbia and I, as well as state legislatures across the country, are pushing to offer incentives for the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles and to remove legal barriers to the use and development of alternative fuels. Most importantly, we should not follow the lead of states like California that tried to raise taxes. Higher taxes only hurt consumers and keep prices higher than they would be without the tax.

For states like South Carolina with a strong manufacturing base and energy-intensive industries like farming and textiles, stable and affordable energy is one of the keys to economic growth and job creation. It is the responsibility of policy-makers at all levels of government to develop a comprehensive approach to reduce energy prices and increase our country's energy independence. If not, we might find ourselves back to the days of $3 per gallon gasoline.

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