Did Cheney's energy panel anticipate high gas prices?

As the average price of gas at the pumps flirts with $3 a gallon, many American families planning summer vacations are asking themselves this question: Can we afford to go anywhere? It's not an unreasonable worry, given what has been going on across the nation in the past several months.
Gas prices have become a regular news feature and will take on even more importance as the vacation season begins.
But lost in all the chatter about the short-term and long-term solutions to this national problem is a question that should be asked, and if it is taken seriously, it would open the door to a long closed subject.
Did Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force discuss the possibility of high gas prices in the not-so-distant future when it met in 2001? The panel included Cheney, some Cabinet-level and other senior administration officials and support staff. They met frequently with energy industry representatives and only on a limited basis with scholars and environmentalists.
When the task force issued its final report in May 2001, such items as expanded oil and gas drilling on public lands and easing of regulatory barriers to build nuclear power plants were included. Many Americans were left to wonder who was at the table when the policy was being developed.
Secret
And they're still wondering, which brings us to the closed door that now needs to be open: The names of the task force members and other participants have been kept secret, as have pertinent documents that relate to the discussions.
Our demand for full disclosure has been unyielding, even in the face of a unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit that said "the president must be free to seek confidential information from many sources, both inside the government and outside." Needless to say, we believe the court was wrong.
The case for full disclosure was never about demanding to know what goes on in the White House every minute of the day. It was and still is about giving the American people a peek into the development of important national policy.
Secrecy in government breeds suspicion, especially in the midst of the pay-to-play culture that has resulted in convictions in Washington and in state capitals such as Columbus.
And because of the skyrocketing gas prices, which are hitting the average American especially hard, the public has a right to know whether the vice president's energy task force anticipated such an eventuality.
It is not idle curiosity given that oil companies are reporting record net profits and are being accused of price gouging.
Big oil insists that its profits are the result of high market prices, which it does not control.
However, because President Bush and Vice President Cheney are former oilmen there have always been questions about the administration's cozy relationship with the industry.
The White House owes it to the nation to dispel any suspicions about the current energy crisis. Full disclosure about the 2001 energy task force's work will help in that regard.