Our view

Congress can't solve our energy needs by boosting the source of our addiction.

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The current version of the energy bill provides plenty of expensive incentives to satiate America's hunger for energy, but painfully little to curb its growing appetite.

House and Senate negotiators are nearing completion of a comprehensive energy package, and they could send this pork-laden measure to the president's desk by the end of the week.

Unfortunately, the compromise bill omits several of the sensible measures of the Senate version and includes several poor ones from the House version.

Now absent from the bill:

* A proposal to find ways to cut the country's dependence on oil by 1 million barrels a day within 10 years.

* Any increase in fuel-efficiency standards for cars or light trucks.

* A requirement that utilities generate 10 percent of their electricity by using renewable fuels.

* An amendment by Rep. Barbara Cubin to re-authorize the 1977 abandoned mine cleanup law, which is set to expire Sept. 30. Cubin, a member of the House-Senate conference committee working on final details of the energy bill, had said last week she hoped to include the compromise measure she and Eastern lawmakers had crafted. A spokesman for her office declined to say why the amendment was not included.

Included in the bill:

* An estimated $11.5 billion in tax breaks and incentives, much of which could go to energy companies at a time when they are experiencing record profits. At a time when energy efficiency in our homes, workplaces and vehicles is both virtue and reward, America shouldn't have to pay people to recognize the benefits.

* A plan to slow the takeover of energy giant Unocal by a company owned by the Chinese government.

The latter is particularly ironic, given that the Chinese financing of American debt should be a greater cause for concern, and is made possible by Congress' inability to control federal spending.

What's best about the bill:

* Gone is a proposal to grant immunity to the makers of MTBE, a fuel additive that has contaminated groundwater.

* Gone is a House proposal that would have relaxed clean air standards.

* Gone is a proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, although the proposal could resurface in budget measures later this fall.

America needs a comprehensive energy policy, but this isn't the right approach. Temporary, expensive measures aimed at boosting production do not in the long term help us wean ourselves from foreign sources of oil, and they do little in the short term to help lower gas prices.

We in Wyoming are proud of the work being done here to meet the nation's energy needs. But, as Americans, we must resolve to find our own ways to curb our dependence on oil.

If Congress isn't willing to address this addiction, we citizens must address it ourselves.