Energy-policy paralysis

Light-hearted cable-news anchors are busy chortling “Ouch!” over rising gasoline prices, as if pain-at-the-pump stories had no larger context. But even Cold War hawks and many Christian conservatives now agree with liberal environmentalists and centrist Democrats that Bush administration energy policy is a historic disaster. The ever-growing U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, especially foreign oil, along with an unwillingness to conserve, are alarming more and more informed Americans. This is happening even as CNN, Fox, the Republican Congress and George W. Bush remain indifferent or clueless.