There is a technological issue here. We know we have what it takes to drill for oil--no radical changes in technology are required. We also know that we need more domestic supplies. We at least should be doing exploratory drilling at ANWR, as well as many other less-publicized locations. It ain't just Democrats blocking drilling either. Jeb Bush has been standing in the way of Gulf oil drilling, too.

The Democrats couldn't give a rat's rump about ANWR. This issue is just one major item in the "block Bush" agenda. An amusing story has surfaced with embarrassed Democrats complaining that the Dept. of the Interior has distributed pictures of the ACTUAL ANWR location for drilling, as opposed to the beautiful Brooks Range footage--many miles away--that is usually shown in news stories and palmed off on the unsuspecting public as the ANWR drilling area.

As for mileage standards, the technology is much less straightforward.

Regardless of what our Congress thinks, and they are generally as butt-ignorant about science and technology as my dog is, you can't make a technological leap by simply waving a law at it. There may be no effective way to make large vehicles more fuel efficient than they are on the short schedule that the supporters of stricter fuel standards had in mind. The automobile companies, who do this for a living, know about this more than anyone else. Of course, since the liberal creed states that all corporations are solely out to screw as many people in as many ways as possible, any objections they make can't possibly be based in fact, but must have some evil ulterior motive.

Although the oil companies may be in favor of using more oil, there is a huge marketing incentive for automobile companies, all else being equal, to build cars with the best mileage possible. Hybrid versions of many types of cars, including SUVs, are coming soon. Mileage standards will improve on their own. Trying to force this too rapidly will simply force some types of cars off the roads, as happened years ago when large car users were forced into trucks, and make tinfoil kludges out of the rest.