Storm Warning.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Energy: The damage Katrina's done to our energy infrastructure is nothing compared with what Congress and Democrats have done and failed to do. Instead of investigating Big Oil, they should investigate themselves.

In the wake of the hurricane's damage to offshore drilling rigs and refinery operations, briefly driving crude oil prices above $70 a barrel, it might be wise for members of Congress to reconsider any notions they might have of once again calling Big Oil CEOs on the carpet to explain $3-a-gallon gasoline when those congressmen return from their August recess.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service reported Monday that 95% of the region's oil output was out of service, with more than 4.6 million barrels of production lost since Friday. Eighty-eight percent of natural gas output was also out of service, resulting in a loss of 25.4 billion cubic feet of lost production.

Suddenly that oil locked up in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge looks even more appealing. Maybe now Congress will stop dragging its feet on drilling in the tiny portion of ANWR where significant reserves of oil and natural gas are known to exist.

As we've noted, if ANWR had been approved back in 1995, when President Clinton nixed it, we would be producing another million barrels a day -- 5% of our total consumption -- reducing gas prices, oil imports and our vulnerability to emergencies like Katrina.

In July 1998, Clinton signed an executive order extending a moratorium on most offshore oil drilling for 10 years and banning drilling in national marine sanctuaries. The Energy Information Agency estimates these restricted areas contain 75 billion barrels of recoverable crude and 362 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Federal law bars energy exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the Outer Continental Shelf and restricts access to resources in the Rocky ...