Ah, dear irony.... last night I sat under a clear starry sky and watched the Detroit Tigers make mincemeat of my adopted team, whose play on the field makes you want to make like their mascot and SCREECH.

Meanwhile, mere blocks away, another crew from the motor city was perpetrating a very similar filleting of any potential progress in the works on a sane policy for modernizing cars and trucks in America.

In the battle on the baseball field, the final score was Detroit 8, Washington 4.... in the battle to get better cars that go farther on a gallon of gas, I'm worried Washington won't do much better when going head-to-head with the Motor City.

But please keep in mind, many of my excellent co-workers here at NRDC who are wearing out the soles of their shoes working the Hill on this think otherwise. It's their optimism that gets us through fights like this.