Massive energy bill avoids biggest issue: how much oil we import

The article addresses this issue by complaining about the fuel efficiency standards of our cars and trucks, but that's just a small slice of the problem.

It mentions the energy bill's incentives to increase domestic production:

In its backward way, this energy bill admits the problem. It encourages more domestic production, by loosening rules and offering tax breaks to the oil industry. But domestic production cannot increase enough to offset America’s increasing oil thirst, not when two-thirds of the world’s known reserves are in the Persian Gulf.

What this article and so many others fail to mention is the fact that oil isn't produced. It's a finite resource that's extraxted. By increasing the rate at which we extract our national resources, we are hastening the day that we become totally dependent on foreign supplies.

The only real solution is to dramatically reduce our consumption. When it comes to where we get our oil, I'd just as soon use foreign supplies while it's still relatively cheap, and conserve ours for when it becomes a much more precious commodity. What we need to increase is not domestic production, but our strategic reserve -- to guard against any short-term cut-off in supplies.

It will takes decades to wean ourselves from our oil addiction. This energy bill was written by the pushers, and it will probably pass because we're a nation of junkies.