"Could you please identify for us and the public the specific policy initiatives the administration has underway or will propose to reverse the current trend," the Democrats said in a letter to Bodman.

The letter noted that Guy Caruso, head of the federal Energy Information Administration, told a Senate hearing last week that shipments of Mideast oil to the US market will rise by about 50 percent in the next two decades.

Bush has sent six cabinet secretaries to 13 states this week, where they will tout ethanol and other renewable fuels, hydrogen fuel cells and gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.

"I have spent a lot of time worrying about the national security implications of being addicted to oil," Bush said on Tuesday at an energy research laboratory in Golden, Colorado.

Consumer groups and environmentalists are tagging Bush's energy initiative as merely a public-relations blitz meant to change public sentiment without changing policy.

"This is pure window-dressing, so the administration can get some new stories out there without offering any solutions that will offend (the Republican party's) biggest contributor - the oil industry," said Tyson Slocum at Public Citizen, the consumer watchdog group.

The Bush administration should focus on reducing gasoline consumption in US cars and trucks and provide much more funding for renewable energy research, said Bill Prindle, an energy expert at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.

"This is about looking like they're doing something," Prindle said of the Bush energy blitz. "I'm sure polls will show that the administration is doing something on energy, but the real record doesn't bear that out."

US consumers have been complaining about energy prices. Natural gas bills hit record highs this winter, while motor fuel prices are up 34 cents from last year, although they have dipped from their highs above $3 a gallon set last September.

Some pundits have said Bush's push to boost ethanol fuel use is political expediency aimed at voters in the Midwest and especially Iowa, where voters will soon evaluate presidential candidates from both parties before holding caucuses to make the first choice among the states in the 2008 race.

"Clearly politicians are better off when they are handing sack-loads of loot to farmers," said Jerry Taylor at the CATO Institute. "If you're interested in the 2008 elections, ethanol is surely going to interest you."

"This is less about Americans' addiction to oil than to Republican politicians' addiction to polls," Taylor said. "The rhetoric is bracing but the proposals are mercifully trivial."

Environmental groups and many Democrats have long called for sharply higher mileage requirements on new vehicles as the only real way to rein in US oil consumption and reduce crude imports.

But Bush has resisted calls for a large increase in fuel economy standards.

After years of resistance from automakers, the Transportation Department raised the fuel efficiency standard for SUVs and other light trucks from 20.7 miles per gallon in 2004 to 21 mpg for the model year 2005, 21.6 mpg for 2006, and 22.2 mpg for 2007.