This week, American truckers staged protests against the rising cost of diesel fuel while members of the U.S. House of Representatives competed to see who could do the best job of hectoring oil-company executives -- on-camera -- about the high price of gasoline.

Also this week, the House voted to double the size of two national marine sanctuaries off of the Northern California coast, which now are permanently protected from offshore-oil drilling. This is the same House that has supported a ban on new offshore drilling off the entire California coast and opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

It's a mystery of modern life that educated voters can grouse about the high price of gasoline, yet see no nexus between rising prices and dwindling domestic supply.

Make that: Rising prices, rising global demand and dwindling domestic supply. The left argues that because of President Bush, America has a poor image abroad. Well, it can't help when Bush goes to the 13-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and asks OPEC to boost oil production, as he did in January -- when back home Washington keeps passing measures to block domestic oil drilling.

"If Americans want more oil and more stable (gasoline) prices, (then) we need to look here at home," noted Jeff Eshelman, spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Sierra Club Deputy Executive Director Bruce Hamilton defended the House's vote on the marine sanctuaries by noting that they are home to important fisheries and that the amount of oil from the sanctuaries is so modest it would not affect the price at the pump.

Hamilton argued that the solution to high gas prices is more efficient cars and energy use.

Got it.

But when I asked Hamilton where it is OK to drill in California, he could only accept pumping "existing" oil fields. No new drilling. Anywhere. Continued...