"U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who said he plans to introduce a House bill that would reopen Virginia waters [to offshore oil exploration and drilling], conceded that such moves would not immediately add to the country's fuel supply."

-- The Washington Post.

"Offshore drilling will not bring short-term relief from $4-a-gallon gasoline . . . ."

-- The New York Times.

Back when the Japanese seemed to be eating everybody else's lunch, conventional wisdom held that they were winning in the mart of competitive commerce because American companies planned for the next quarter while the Japanese planned for the next century.

Now conventional wisdom argues that there's no point in planning for the future if doing so won't fix everything today. Or at least that's the script on developing new oil fields.

But the received wisdom on, say, climate change sounds rather different. Cutting greenhouse emissions won't bring down average global temperatures overnight, or even next month. It will take years -- if not decades -- before programs such as carbon cap-and-trade have any measurable effect on global warming. Yet we don't recall environmentalists saying that's a reason not to pursue them.

For that matter, we don't recall hearing Democrats argue that there's no point in spending more money on education, since it will be years before children are old enough to put their knowledge to use. Nor do we recall hearing anybody say American workers ought to stop putting aside money for their retirement, since doing so will not immediately add to anybody's short-term enjoyment.

In Virginia, many Democrats and some Republicans favor raising taxes to build roads, though it would be months before new concrete began to pour, and years before new roads opened to traffic. Hiking taxes won't bring short-term relief from congestion, you know.

To hear critics of offshore drilling, you'd think it's a mistake to plant crops. After all, a seed in the ground won't feed anybody today, right?