As long as Congress and its leaders are so unpopular — largely because they can’t get anything done — they ought to do something that will be very unpopular in the short run but will vindicate them in the long run: Raise gasoline taxes.

A hefty hike in gas taxes — better yet, in taxes on all carbon-based fuels — will accomplish far more than mandates and subsidies for what everyone claims to want: “Energy independence” and “clean energy.”

Carbon taxes would encourage conservation, fuel-efficient cars, development of alternative energy sources — and would provide funds for investment in energy research and infrastructure.

Rebates could be provided to diminish the impact on poor people, and taxes could be cut when oil, gas and coal companies develop “clean” technologies.

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Sensible though the idea is — and despite evidence that $3 per gallon gas already is causing Americans to move from SUVs to hybrids — gas and carbon taxes have not even been broached in the current energy debate in Congress.

Nor is President Bush or any candidate for his job advocating them, though all say they support freeing the United States from dependency on foreign oil and improving the environment.

It certainly would take courage. The instant reaction of voters to any tax increase is “no.” The last poll I could find on the subject, a New York Times/CBS poll in 2006, showed that 85 percent of voters opposed a gas tax hike.

And yet, 55 percent said they’d support such an increase if it reduced U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and 59 percent said they’d support it if it resulted in less consumption or eased the threat of global warming.

This suggests that real leadership is required from our top politicians. Instead, they pander to their favorite groups — environmentalists and populists for Democrats, anti-environmentalists and energy producers for Republicans — and decry high gasoline prices.

Democrats are accusing oil companies of “gouging” and “profiteering.” Republicans, with more evidence, are blaming increased demand for oil from China and India and a lack of U.S. refinery capacity for high prices.

But neither is telling the truth, even with oil at $70 a barrel and gasoline at $3 a gallon, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce put it in a recent report, “the typical family is not paying more than ever before for energy.”

The report, “Energy Security in the 21st Century: Facts, Choices and Challenges,” made the point that “energy consumption represented approximately 7 percent of the average household budget between 1990 and 2004, a decrease from 11 percent in the early 1980s.”

It was unveiled at a conference June 11 at which the clear message from energy experts was that the United States needs to “do it all” to fulfill its future energy needs, diversify sources and “get green” — expand domestic production of oil, gas and coal; remove restrictions on energy production and transmission; promote conservation; advance alternatives; and invest in new technology.

In Congress, instead of promoting do-it-all energy development and finding bipartisan ways to do it, Republicans and Democrats are fighting with each other, promoting their favorite energy nostrums — and getting nowhere.

The result is that the public will look once again with disgust at Congress, whose approval rating in the Gallup Poll stands at 24 percent, even lower than Bush’s dismal 31 percent. The Rasmussen poll put Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s, D-Nev., approval at 19 percent. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rated 34 percent in a Newsweek poll.

Admittedly, higher energy taxes would be a hard sell for any Democratic leader. Republicans likely would make their lives miserable. The idea would need bipartisan backing. But it is the right idea and it could be sold as a path to what everybody wants — energy independence and a clean environment.

Morton Kondracke is executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill.