Congress
ORG
Congress
Senator Pete Domenici told a recent gathering of experts that if Congress is going to do anything useful this year about the two big energy-related questions of our time, oil dependency and global warming, it will have to focus on four or five big things instead of the usual laundry list of tax breaks, subsidies and modest research programs. The realist in him knows that this Congress is unlikely to take either of the steps that would be most likely to lower oil consumption as well as greenhouse gases: a big increase in fuel economy standards and a big gasoline tax. The question is whether Congress can focus on the big issues without engaging in the diversionary food fights that every energy bill seems to inspire.