Most democrats and republicans agree that the U.S. needs to stop relying on foreign oil, but while the left pushes for green energy and conservation and the right pushes for increased stateside exploration and lower taxes on the oil industry, experts suggest an ecumenical approach that encompasses all of the above.

In his testimony before a Joint Economic Committee hearing on oil and the economy on May 20, researcher and expert Daniel Yergin said that the U.S. will have to diversify its energy sources in order to prevent future spikes in oil prices as well as improve energy security.

“We need to get beyond the either/or energy debate and take a more ecumenical approach,” he said in his prepared remarks for the hearing. “We have never seen anything like the embrace of energy efficiency that is taking place today all across the spectrum.”

As of May 11, average diesel prices have dropped below gasoline prices for the first time since July 23, 2007, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration.

Gasoline and diesel prices traditionally crossed paths in springtime as the high-demand summer driving season begins and the consumption rate for gasoline grows while distillate fuel prices, including diesel and heating oil, fall from their winter highs. This price pattern began to break in 2005 when diesel prices exceeded gasoline prices nearly the entire year, according to the EIA report.

The abnormal price actions continued in 2006, when gasoline and diesel prices remained at parity from April to July. The pattern returned in 2007, with gasoline rising strongly above diesel from late April to late July. But last year, diesel climbed to much higher levels than gasoline, despite gasoline breaking $4 gal.