No energy bill might be better than what's shaping up

At first we wondered if fumes from the high-octane debate on overhauling American energy policy might have overcome some members of the U.S. Senate.
After a full year of fulminating on the need for the nation to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, senators are poised to do nothing about it.

The two biggest components of the energy bill being debated in the Democrat-controlled Senate took divergent approaches to the problem. They were:

äThe long-term, demand approach, requiring carmakers to increase the average gas mileage of their new vehicles; and

äThe short-term, supply approach, letting oil companies drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other special, protected places.

Now it appears neither way will survive -- higher mileage standards are all but dead, and the drilling in ANWR isn't believed to have enough support to overcome a filibuster by its foes.