WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday said his national energy policy would not lower gasoline prices anytime soon but called on Congress to pass it by August to begin weaning the nation from imported oil and making the transition to alternative sources of power and fuel.

"I wish I could simply wave a magic wand and lower gas prices tomorrow," Bush told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "But we must act now to address the fundamental problem. Our supply of energy is not growing fast enough to meet the demands of our growing economy." The average retail gasoline price hit a record $2.28 per gallon last week.

As Bush spoke, the House began debating an energy bill that includes $8.1 billion in tax breaks, mainly for big energy companies; permits oil drilling in part of Alaska's wildlife refuge; and provides legal protections to producers of the gasoline additive MTBE, which is blamed for contaminating drinking water.

In a move aides described as a shot at House Republicans, Bush said, "With oil at more than $50 a barrel, by the way, energy companies do not need taxpayers-funded incentives to explore for oil and gas."

Bush supports drilling in Alaska as well as a mix of incentives and tax breaks aimed at promoting cleaner-burning coal, nuclear energy, liquefied natural gas, ethanol and other renewable fuels. He does not support the amount of tax breaks for oil and gas exploration proposed by House Republicans.

Bush, whose energy plan has been stalled in Congress for four years, is facing increased pressure from Democrats and a coalition of conservatives to do much more to promote alternative energy sources and more efficient vehicles this year.

Some say the president should set aside, or scrap, his Social Security plan and dedicate his second term to restructuring the way Americans power their businesses, homes and cars. They cite three events as reason to act now: the steep rise in oil and gas prices, increased U.S. dependency on the oil-rich Middle East and skyrocketing demand for oil in China and India.

Democrats, calling energy prices a "crisis" that is jeopardizing the nation's economic and national security, are urging Bush to support more generous incentives to businesses to produce alternative fuels and to consumers to use them.

"The issue today is not that the president doesn't understand the problem, it's that he has no solutions," said Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., who lost to Bush in 2004. "The energy plan he continues to campaign for will make us more dependent on foreign oil, it will keep gas prices at record highs instead of making them affordable for consumers, and it will make our air and water more polluted instead of investing in a cleaner future."

At the same time, several Republican foreign policy experts, political operatives and Christian conservative leaders are quietly lobbying Bush and Congress to do some of the things that Kerry and Democrats are advocating, and more. This group includes Frank Gaffney Jr., a Reagan administration defense official; R. James Woolsey, a former director of central intelligence; and Gary Bauer, president of American Values, a Christian group.

They want Bush to spend as much as $12 billion over the next four years to subsidize efforts by companies to build flexible-fuel vehicles and electric cars, add pumps for alternative fuels to 25 percent of the nation's filling stations and build plants that produce non-petroleum fuels, among other things. "This is an area where the president could leave a significant historical contribution before his term is over," Bauer said.