For many -- if not most -- Mainers, the only subject these days is the cost of energy.

It's frightening when it costs more than $70 to fill up your gas tank. Where's the money for the next tank going to come from? It's beyond frightening to contemplate the prospect of paying from 50 percent to 75 percent more this winter than last for heating oil. Where's that money going to come from? The food budget? The college tuition budget? The insufficient Social Security payments that come once a month? The paychecks that last year couldn't cover all the family's needs?

The state faces the very real likelihood of a humanitarian and economic emergency this winter in which families, the poor and elderly, as well as some businesses, will not be able to meet their gas and heating oil costs.

Anticipating the potential crisis, Gov. John Baldacci last November convened a Pre-Emergency Energy Task Force to assess the scope of the problem and make recommendations for how the state can help businesses and citizens.

The task force consisted of 90 members representing consumers, energy industry leaders, public officials, nonprofit and utility executives, environmentalists, housing experts, trucking and wood-products industry members. It was headed by the state's energy czar, former lawmaker John Kerry. This week, the task force sent the governor a preliminary and predictably huge list of recommendations, which presumably will get whittled down to a more manageable list by the time final recommendations are issued in mid-July.

On the one hand, the list is unfocused and ranges from broad goals such as, "Provide programs to keep all Maine citizens safe, secure and warm," to very specific ones like, "Energy audits should be required of all borrowers and energy savings documented." They run the gamut from what government can do to what government probably can't do and what private industry might do, or might never do.

But as Energy Czar Kerry put it, "It sounds like a grand vision, but you have to have one."

Indeed. For some Mainers, the cost of energy is already a crisis; that situation will only get worse as the winter arrives, all too soon.

What's needed is just this kind of effort, where everything is put on the table, no idea is too big -- and then we get down to what can be done quickly as well as over the long term to help Mainers through the immediate crisis that promises to become a way of life far into the future.

A few guiding principles we'd like Baldacci to consider as he chooses what to do:

* Meaningful action to stem this crisis will cost the state money. Kowtowing to fiscal conservatives in the face of an imminent emergency may be politically expedient, but it won't keep faith with the real needs of Mainers. We don't want to see new taxes, but cutting spending in other areas, or taking money out of the state's rainy day fund are both options for finding money to pay for new programs. And we shouldn't be profligate, but offering a simple Web site filled with information about energy-saving alternatives won't be enough.

* Conservation isn't a dirty word. It's one of the top two ways to immediately cut heating and fuel expenditures by individuals and businesses (the other is government assistance). That's why we like the proposal to send out energy-efficiency teams to thousands of Maine homes and businesses, armed with "warm kits" that will weatherize and make them more energy efficient.

* Public-private partnerships are a good idea and state workers toiling alongside nonprofit employees magnifies the efforts of both entities.

* Aim high, but be realistic. The task force's proposals shoot for weatherizing 5,000 households before winter. That leaves an addition 477,000 homes to do. This will take time, and a system for prioritizing those who need help will be essential.

Maine is facing a potential humanitarian and economic disaster, but the current situation also presents enormous opportunity. Now is the time to remake our state's fossil-fuel based economy, to help Mainers become models of energy efficiency, to promote the long-term development of new technologies and industries in which Maine can be a national leader. That will take commitment, and it will take investment.

But as much as we applaud the governor's initiative, states are not in the best position to solve this problem. States are already struggling to pay their bills while keeping a lid on new taxes. And states like Maine would hurt themselves in the long run by trying to solve the energy crisis by raising taxes.

The federal government is -- or should be -- in the best position to deal with the immediate and the long-term energy crisis.

Instead, down in Washington, everyone is posturing and playing presidential and party politics.

Congress and the president should be doing what Maine is doing -- bringing together the right people with the right attitude to help people in need.