Don’t Force an Energy Bill

NYT Editorial

President Bush’s call for the lame duck Congress to pass pending “bipartisan energy legislation” before it leaves Washington forever is a very good example of why the House and Senate should limit their work in this final session to as few measures as possible. Congress needs to pass the budgets it failed to get done before the elections. And since no time should be lost in the Bush reassessment of Iraq, the Senate should consider the nomination of Robert Gates to be defense secretary.

And that should be the extent of the agenda.

The energy bill Mr. Bush apparently had in mind is in fact two bills, one in the Senate and another in the House. Both would authorize increased offshore drilling for oil and natural gas. But there are huge differences between them.

The Senate bill, co-sponsored by Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, is a narrowly drawn measure that would open a section of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration and use part of the royalties to help rebuild Louisiana’s battered wetlands and barrier islands. This page, setting aside earlier misgivings, has supported her bill because of its limited scope and its demonstrably worthy environmental objectives.

The House bill, by contrast, is a broad, mischievous and badly conceived piece of work sponsored by Richard Pombo, Republican of California, that, in a stroke, would lift a long-standing federal moratorium on oil and gas drilling along the entire American coastline. The bill has been vigorously opposed by most state governors from Maine to California.

There has always been a danger that the two bills would go to a conference committee where — the Senate’s assurances notwithstanding — the usual horse-trading would produce a bad bill much along the lines of the House measure. That danger may now be greater. Mr. Pombo’s defeat in last Tuesday’s election raises the distinct possibility that he will make one last desperate effort to help his friends in the oil and gas industry before he retires into well-earned political obscurity.

The terrain during a lame duck session is notoriously treacherous. Our suggestion, therefore, is that Congress take a deep breath and postpone any energy legislation until next year. At that point, Ms. Landrieu, whose party will be in charge, can try again. Alternatively, she could work with other leaders to produce a true energy bill — a comprehensive measure that would also seek to reduce consumption by encouraging more efficient cars and alternative fuels. As Ms. Landrieu concedes, drilling is only part of the energy equation. That is especially true for a country that uses one-quarter of the world’s oil while holding less than 3 percent of its reserves.

Several such bills have already been introduced in the Senate, with considerable bipartisan support. This is where Congress — and, one hopes, a newly receptive Mr. Bush — should put their efforts in the new year.