A gas tax won’t end dependence on foreign oil, but that’s OK.

However, Europeans also benefit from more robust public transportation and an automotive manufacturing culture that already produces plenty of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, running on gas as well as diesel. (Ford, for example, sells a diesel subcompact in Europe that averages 56 mpg.) In the United States, we're still tooling around in trucks and SUVs that are lucky to hit 20 mpg in highway driving. And, speaking of highways, Americans also tend to routinely drive longer distances than Europeans.

Regardless of whose tax plan, if any, succeeds, the bottom line remains: Conservation means continued decades of engagement with the Middle East. If we wanted to shed this onerous obligation, we'd simply suppress the price of gas (as we basically have done by keeping the tax low) for a few more decades, build and drive more Chevy Tahoes and Ford Explorers, and burn through the reserves faster. This would bring on a crisis, but at least we'd have an excuse to blow off the Arab world.

But why? Resource relations are some of the oldest and most important in human history, and at critical periods—such as during the Cold War—have been of immense geopolitical value to the United States, as Rachel Bronson, author of Thicker Than Oil: America's Uneasy Partnership With Saudi Arabia, has demonstrated. Besides, even if we drastically cut back our use of the most plentiful and economically cost-effective fuel resource available, we can be sure our competitors—China, India, and any other growing economies not as concerned as we are with emissions—will keep on lapping it up and keep on growing.

So, in a sense, "Tax, baby tax!" does depend on "Drill, baby, drill!" It's just that drilling is going to have to continue to take place far from home, for now. And don't worry, the all-electric, oil-free future is coming—but it's farther down the road, rather than just around the bend.