01:00 AM EDT on Monday, July 25, 2005

The versions of the energy bill that have been passed by the U.S. House and Senate, and that are headed for a conference committee, are pretty bad, although the House one is worse.

In both there's far too little emphasis on conservation and on alternatives to fossil fuel, an increasingly percentage of which, of course, comes for abroad and a little bit of which helps pay the bills of the terrorist community.

Indeed, there are heavy tax-break incentives to the very prosperous oil and gas industry, which would not seem to need such incentives at the moment. President Bush has noted that such incentives are unneeded. After all, we'll be dependent on the oil, gas and coal sector for a long time to come. Companies within the sector will do fine.

Perhaps the worst example of short-sightedness is that SUV and light trucks continue to be excluded from national fuel-economy standards because of lobbying by the auto industry. This is nuts!.

It would be better if the energy bills died in conference committee, as they did last year.