Next Stop, the Senate

Congress gave President Bush a flurry of last-minute victories before taking off on August break. Notable among them was House passage of an energy bill. But any sense of triumph regarding that legislation will be brief.

The Senate will take up these energy measures afresh when it returns. That's all to the good, since the House bill does about as well on close inspection as a Mexican short-haul truck.

For starters, the bill became a repository for special-interest tax breaks. Some of these are justified, such as tax incentives for developing nonpolluting energy sources like solar technology. But House lawmakers spread energy tax advantages to railroad and barge companies, electricity producers, and, of course, oil and gas drillers. Mr. Bush originally asked for $10 billion in energy-related tax measures. The House, with an eye to all constituencies (and especially those who contribute heavily to political campaigns), upped that to $33.5 billion.

The senators should be ready to downshift. Fiscal responsibility, if nothing else, demands restraint. The national budget, already stretched to accommodate the Bush income-tax cuts, leaves little room for the House tax-break largess.

The Senate should also apply the brakes to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The House OK'd energy exploration on a relatively tiny piece of the refuge, 2,000 acres. Even that small inroad took intense effort from Republican backers, as well as hard lobbying by the Teamsters Union, which sees drilling as a job-producer.

Proponents of drilling have yet to convince most Americans that it wouldn't damage the country's last great expanse of pristine wilderness. Senate opponents promise a filibuster if necessary, to defeat the measure.

Such tactics shouldn't be needed to deal with another issue the House mishandled. That's the very sensible step of making SUVs and light trucks subject to a higher gas-mileage standard than the one they've been held to since 1983. This could conserve enough oil to dwarf what might be pumped from ANWR.

On this issue, too, the Senate can travel a better route.

Energy legislation should be passed that contains a mix of useful approaches, including many of the steps in the Bush-Cheney energy plan. The House just got a little mixed-up as it hastened toward that goal.