To most of us, energy policy means figuring out how much $4-a-gallon gas to put in the tank and still have money left over to buy school clothes for the kids. It means paying higher prices for just about everything, including food, because the cost of shipping has gone through the roof. It means working harder to not fall behind and worrying that it won't be hard enough.

Our leaders' task is to recognize and somehow address those very real and wrenching human situations while, at the same time, addressing the momentous, long-term energy challenges facing America and the world.

The U.S. House of Representatives addressed them this week in its vote approving an expansion of offshore oil drilling for the first time in decades. If that bill eventually becomes law, it could affect the psychology of the international oil market and at least restrain the growth of prices, even if it can't produce immediate and dramatic drops.

The bill also addressed big-picture energy problems. It would provide funding for long-term development of alternative energy technologies. That, not more drilling, is what offers true hope for solutions to our many-faceted energy problems.

The "drill, baby, drill" mantra that has become a Republican campaign slogan is a dangerous fantasy when it comes to achieving genuine American energy independence. No matter how many times the slogan is repeated, the numbers cannot be made to work:

Americans use about 20.7 million barrels of oil every day. We pump roughly 5 million barrels from domestic wells. If, say, the entire Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were opened up to drilling, in 10 years or so we could boost that to about 7 million barrels. The additional 2 million barrels of supply might produce somewhat lower gas prices, but only if the rest of the oil production in the world — and consumption levels — remained the same. The nations of OPEC, which are determined to keep oil prices high, simply could cut production by 2 million barrels a day.

The more likely scenario is that by that time, global demand would have increased so substantially — with millions of newly minted middle-class families in India and China buying into an American-style energy-intensive good life — that a 2 million-barrel increase in supply simply would prove meaningless.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Friedman argues that we're entering a new age in which renewable clean-energy technology will transform the world economy the same way information technology transformed it during the 1980s and 1990s.

America either can lead the way into this new age by capitalizing on our innovative strengths and the jobs it will create — or get in line behind the countries that do it sooner and better. If we lead, we secure our economic future. If we follow, we cede world economic leadership to others.

Whatever the political maneuvering behind it, the House energy bill approved this week is a step in the right direction, even though it falls far short of ushering in the new energy age.

With just two weeks until Congress adjourns, the Senate now takes up the challenge. The first thing it needs to do is extend the $17 billion in clean-energy tax incentives that are set to expire at the end of the month. They are crucial to maintaining the momentum of the young American solar and wind power industries as they work to become economically competitive with older technologies.

Even if the Senate extends those incentives and approves something resembling the House bill, there are questions about whether President George W. Bush would sign it into law. Bush has argued that it doesn't go far enough to encourage offshore drilling. But killing the bill would do nothing but cripple our progress toward a sustainable energy future, and it certainly wouldn't help working families.

The longer we regard oil drilling as an energy policy, the longer we'll remain at the mercy of oil-producing states that are fundamentally opposed to American national security and economic interests.

The House bill, imperfect as it is, at least keeps us from backsliding toward the unsustainable oil-based energy systems of the past.

BY THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH.

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