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The 110th Congress may not be too keen on drilling into the earth for American oil reserves. But as far as America's energy policies go, they seem to have no problem running those into the ground.

The latest, from dailypress.com:

A House subcommittee killed a proposal to open up the nation's coastlines to offshore drilling for oil and natural gas Wednesday.

But House Republicans who pushed the proposal vowed to continue their fight, saying the public is behind them as the average price of gasoline now tops $4 a gallon.

On a party-line vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees public lands voted 9 to 6 against the drilling plan.

The proposal by Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., would allow for drilling between 50 miles and 200 miles of the nation's coastlines.

A 27-year-old federal moratorium has prevented offshore drilling in most coastal waters except parts of the Gulf of Mexico.

Virginia lawmakers have expressed interest in pursuing drilling, particularly for natural gas.

Peterson, who is retiring next year, said offshore drilling could provide enough oil to replace Middle East oil imports for 35 years. He said the plan would also yield an 18-year supply of natural gas.

"There is no valid reason for Congress to continue keeping Americans from the offshore resources they own," Peterson said.

But Democrats, who control Congress, said offshore drilling would have no immediate effect on the price of gasoline and would do little to lower the world price of oil.

"We are kidding ourselves, as we routinely do in this town, if we think we can drill our way out of this problem," said Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wis.

As opposed to, say, not drilling our way out of this problem?

Or even planning to for a future when gas prices may be far more insane than they are now?

Take a real good look at this Congress' performance in the time that gas prices have nearly doubled.

First, not only do biofuels' consumption of food crops cause a worldwide food crisis, it appears they are not as environment-friendly as we have been led to believe.

Second, the only good thing that can be said about the Lieberman-Warner $6 Trillion 'Climate Security Act' is that it went in the tank under threat of a Bush veto.

For this year, anyway.

It seems McCain and Obama are both open to signing it, and it is expected to resurface next year. If that bill passes, you haven't seen anything yet in the way of all energy prices, including natural gas, oil and electricity as well.

The earth may cool, but our wallets will burn.

Third, it would seem there will be no moratorium on federal gas taxes, so don't expect any relief there, no matter how many trucker convoys circle Washington.

Fourth, there is talk of a windfall profits tax on Big Oil, but who gets all that money? We The People who paid it, or the Usual Suspects?

Do you really think if Congress windfall-taxes the oil companies to the tune of, say, $30B, they're going to cut each of us a check for $100.00?

As Wayne and Garth would say: Ya, as if.

Can you say Drunken Sailors on Payday?

Fifth, even many Green types say we should build a lot more nuclear reactors to supplant or replace our overpolluting coal and oil-fueled electricity plants, but that will take years of planning and battling the environmental lawsuits sure to come just to break ground.

Alas, we will end up doing nothing there either.

So the situation is this.

The Sierra Club Congress will never drill, or allow it, where the real oil is. There will be no drilling in ANWR, offshore or any new major refineries built, as there hasn't been in America for nearly thirty years.

We will remain at the mercy of oil barons in the Middle East, some of whom just bought the Chrysler Building in New York.

I'm not so crazy about where a lot of that other Middle East oil money is going either.

But I digress.

This is about America becoming self-sufficient energy-wise, and that ain't going to happen.

Not with this Congress, or perhaps any other.

For the record, I am not a James Watt type who believes that we should strip-mine Yellowstone and other federal preserves just because Jesus is Coming.

But it is fast becoming crunch time on this whole energy business, and we are being failed miserably by our supposed representatives in Congress.

There is a sensible approach somewhere between strip-mining Yellowstone and taxing the hell out of the energy industries and refusing to develop and process our own considerable resources.

It's just that nobody in Congress is looking for it.

Let's face it. We are not going to get out of our oil jam short-term with solar panels, wind farms, biofuels and other new and emerging technologies that have yet to prove as reliable and efficient as what we have now.

And taxing the hell out of those resources with windfall profits taxes or Climate Security Acts are only going to drive all energy prices up.

We Americans are almost as dependent on oil as we are on clean water. It is the lifeblood of this nation. It is how we get to work, our schools, and our basic human needs like food. It is also how those basic human needs get to our supermarkets.

Today is it 'Staycations.'

What's it gonna be next year?

Home Schooling for Everyone?

Are we supposed to do nothing until our economy resembles Zimbabwe's?

We are facing a rapidly dawning energy crisis in this nation, and our elected officials are doing nothing but exacerbating the problems in the names of Climate Security, protecting the environment, 'new' energy' or telling us that it is too far in our future to start planning and taking action now to prevent crises later.

I have to ask myself: just who are they working for?

I know the answer to one other question, though.

If this keeps up at the pace it's going come November, a lot of Congressmen and Senators are going to have to start driving and filling up their own goddamn gas tanks, and not on our tab anymore either.

That's my own sensible energy policy to get things moving.

Might just work, too.

Nothing else seems to be.