Summertime Blues.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)

Natural Gas: With supplies at roughly their lowest point since the energy-starved 1970s, expect lawmakers to hatch a surplus of solutions over the summer.

Just don't expect many sensible answers. History is littered with problems caused by poor public policy cloaked as responsible solutions.

Energy Department figures show that natural gas supplies are 32% below last year's level and 22% below the previous five-year average, while demand is up and will continue to climb. Last week Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the natural gas shortage "will touch virtually every American."

That prediction is likely to prove accurate soon. As demand for natural gas to fire electric power plants increases as the hottest months arrive, so do the prospects of brownouts and blackouts. With natural gas prices up by, reportedly, as much as 700% in the last three years and moving upward still, it could well be a cruel summer.

This dilemma resulted from a convergence of separate federal decisions that were driven by the same source.

The increased demand is a product of policies that encourage the use of natural gas.

Because it burns cleaner than coal in making electricity, it is the favored fuel of bureaucrats and lawmakers who want to please environmental groups and the ecology-conscious in ...