Conservative conservation

IT’S BEEN TOO LONG COMING, but it’s good to see the Bush administration change from eschewing energy conservation to encouraging it. The administration also deserves praise for outlining steps that the federal government will take to reduce travel and electricity use among its employees, and for looking for ways to increase and diversify refinery capacity.

But it takes sustained leadership to improve the nation’s energy outlook, and on this score President Bush has faltered. From the start, the administration’s policies have shunned the most practical steps for reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Even now, the president has no long-term plan to reduce energy consumption, and his allies will likely use the hurricanes as an excuse to push for energy exploration in environmentally precious areas. With new foreign competition for a finite supply of oil, this won’t suffice.

Last summer’s energy bill -- aside from a poorly drawn tax break for hybrid vehicles that caps incentives for the most popular and efficient hybrids -- had nothing to say on the subject of fuel efficiency for cars. The administration’s new fuel standards for light trucks, announced in August, were a disappointment, and the White House hasn’t proposed better standards for passenger cars at all.

As this page has noted, even a modest improvement in these standards would more than make up for all the oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Yes, raising them by close to 20 miles per gallon would add a couple thousand dollars to the sticker price of a new car. But drivers would save that much (at current prices) at the gas pumps within a few years.

Vice President Dick Cheney once memorably derided conservation as “a sign of personal virtue” but not “a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.” Bush’s remarks didn’t quite amount to a renunciation of that view. But if the president wants to make conservation official administration policy, he might start with something personal: On Monday, he asked Americans to avoid trips that were “not essential.” Maybe he can save some jet fuel by keeping Air Force One in the hangar more often.