Add high energy prices to a sagging economy in an election year and politicians will inevitably come up with bad policies, like converting the corn crop into ethanol or John McCain’s proposal to suspend the federal gas tax  neither will provide real relief at the pump while both are guaranteed to create other problems.

The good news is that Congress failed last week to cut a deal on two more bad ideas: Republicans’ misguided push for offshore drilling and Democrats’ misbegotten plan to curb speculation in oil futures.

Republicans should know that allowing more offshore drilling might marginally trim oil prices  in about a decade  while sacrificing important environmental protections. Democrats should know that financial speculation is not what’s driving oil prices, and that curbing futures trading could hamper the ability of companies like airlines and oil refineries to manage their risks by locking in the price of oil. Putting them together is compounding one bad idea with another.

Of course, there is plenty of evidence that markets can be manipulated by fraudulent speculation  recall the Enron mess. Yet all evidence suggests that speculation has little to do with the rising price of crude. From rice to iron, commodity prices are all rising, even without much financial speculation, due to a variety of factors including a weak dollar and growing demand from China and India.