Kerry, cheaper gas is my aim.

...Facing GOP attacks for advocating higher gas taxes as a senator, Kerry will call on President Bush to temporarily suspend filling U.S. oil reserves and to apply greater pressure on oil-producing nations to increase production, said Stephanie Cutter, a Kerry spokeswoman...[snip]

As this back-and-forth shows, both parties think the issue packs a political punch. Of the nine states with the highest regular gas-price increases, four -- Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada -- are considered swing states in the upcoming elections.

Democrats think the price of gas could become a major flash point in the presidential debate over oil, the economy and even Iraq and broader Middle East foreign policies. As one measure of the political sensitivity of the issue, a group of House Republicans has formally asked the White House to do what Kerry is calling for -- to ease pressure on prices by suspending shipments to the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the government's emergency stockpile of oil...[snip]

More at link

Now, if I was running for president, I would use higher fuel costs as an environmental issue first, a national security issue sceond, and an economic issue last.

I needn't go through the litany of Bush anti-environmental policies. Kyoto, mercury emissions and gutting the Endangered Species Act are but three.

Oil has always been a 'strategic' problem for the U.S. This doesn't require expounding, as it is a truism.

The economic issue is important as well. Higher energy prices result in both higher costs of goods, and less money in the hands of consumers to pay for said goods.