The $14.5 billion energy bill approved by Congress on Friday -- President Bush is expected to sign it into law this week -- has been sold to consumers as a way to boost self-sufficiency and wean us from our addiction to imported oil.
The bottom line is this: The energy bill (all 1,724 pages of it) will indeed boost our self-sufficiency, but not by ushering in a bright new age of alternative fuels. Rather, it'll help us out in a pinch by improving things like transmission grids and pipelines.
In other words, we hopefully won't see a replay of the California energy crisis.
As for our dangerous Saudi oil habit, we're nowhere close to enrolling in an energy 12-step program.
San Francisco Chronicle
