Old thinking on energy

Three-bucks-a-gallon gasoline has transformed the energy debate in Washington from what Marylanders might see as a principled if abstract battle over drilling in Alaska’s wildlife refuge to the most serious threat in 25 years of oil rigs rising off Ocean City.

Short-term politics of a tumultuous election year have driven Congress to contemplate lifting a ban on coastal oil and gas exploration that’s been in place for a quarter-century and until this year had been considered sacrosanct.

Differences between a sweeping House measure and a more narrow Senate proposal mostly focused on the Gulf of Mexico may be impossible to resolve before Congress adjourns in the fall. What’s really needed, though, is a completely different approach.

The worst feature of this legislation is that it’s so backward, so ostrich-head-in-the-sand, so 1950s. The nation’s energy future doesn’t lie with plundering seacoasts and other precious natural resources for ever-more-meager supplies of polluting fossil fuels.

Baltimore Sun