A glutton for foreign oil

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: President Bush's Jimmy Carter-like call for Americans to drive less points out the alarming vulnerability of our nation's energy supply. Be it a hurricane in the Gulf or a political blow-up in the Middle East, the United States is at the mercy of forces it can't foresee or control.
That's why we need a rational, forward-looking energy policy that lessens our reliance on foreign oil -- the U.S. now imports roughly 60 percent of its oil -- stresses conservation and increases domestic energy production without throwing environmental safeguards overboard.
Driving less is a great idea unless you happen to live in a sprawling region where development and limited public transportation make cars indispensable. Carpooling and biking to work are good ideas, but not likely to get us substantial savings.
As we've said before, one of the most effective ways to cut demand is by tightening mileage standards for cars and light trucks, which guzzle 40 percent of the country's oil. The president and Congress should significantly hike mileage standards for both cars and trucks, phasing them in over years so that automakers can adjust. The technology to save fuel is here today.
Looking for alternatives
We also must push alternative fuels -- from corn-derived ethanol available now to hydrogen-fueled engines in the near future. Congress should require that new car engines accept fuel blends with higher ethanol content. The other half of the solution is to produce more oil at home, so that we are less dependent on unstable regimes in South America and the Middle East.
The United States also needs to build more refineries, and build them in places other than Hurricane Alley on the Gulf. Bush has opened the spigots on the nation's strategic oil reserve, but there is no place to refine it. Katrina and Rita also knocked nearly one-quarter of America's gasoline refinery production offline. But even before the hurricanes struck, American refineries were running at 96 percent capacity. None have been built in the United States since the late 1970s.
Congress and the White House are considering several ways to fast-track new refineries, some good and some bad.
Loosening environmental standards is the wrong way to go. We want to refine oil and gas, not breathe or swim in it. But the government should encourage a faster approval process for new refineries, and allow existing refineries to expand as long as they don't increase pollution.