Given how much political steam it has generated, experts say that President George W. Bush's flagship energy policy will do little to address America's reliance on foreign oil or its gas-guzzling excess.

A hefty 1,724-page energy bill now awaits Bush's signature after going through Congress last week to end one of the most drawn-out political dramas of his four years in office.

The president staked his personal prestige on enacting a measure that he says will address one of the most serious national security problems facing the nation -- its dependence on oil from the volatile Middle East.

Foreign oil accounts for 58 percent of total consumption in the United States. That figure will rise to 68 percent by 2025, according to government projections.

Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said all sides of the rancorous debate that accompanied the energy bill's passage had missed the point.

"Both Republicans and Democrats are completely paralyzed in addressing the nation's three big energy challenges -- reducing our dependence on Middle East oil, reducing gasoline prices for consumers, and beginning to shift our economy to renewable energy technologies," he said.

"On all three issues, the bill is a big fat zero."

Jerry Taylor, director of natural resource studies at the free-market Cato Institute, said the bill was a case study in special-interest politics from an administration that, from Bush down, is not short of former oil men.

"The bill is larded with subsidies, tax preferences and miscellaneous handouts to an energy industry that -- with prices this high -- are in no need of taxpayer assistance," he said.

The legislation, which Bush says he will soon sign into law, includes 14.5 billion dollars in tax breaks over the next 10 years, mostly for coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear and utilities.

But it also includes incentives to develop alternative energy sources such as wind and water, along with tax breaks for hybrid cars powered by gasoline and electricity.

The final bill was shorn of several of Bush's key goals, including opening an untouched Arctic wildlife reserve in Alaska to oil drilling.

Analysts said the legislation will do nothing to make US cars more fuel-efficient, the single biggest measure that could rein in the influence of imported oil to the US economy.

"Everyone agrees that that really has to be a component of a serious policy to reduce imports," said Rick Mueller, senior oil analyst at ESAI Energy Security Analysis.

"The winners really are the energy industry," he said.

Even the bill's supporters have toned down their rhetoric of what the measure can achieve in the short term, playing down hopes that it will reduce record-high petrol pump prices.

"It is a good first step," said Representative Richard Pombo (news, bio, voting record), the Republican chairman of the House resources committee.

"It's a way to move forward. There is a lot of things that we were able to get into this bill that over a period of time will increase domestic production," he said.

The bill foresees a stock-take of offshore oil deposits lying off the US coasts. Environmentalists fear that will open the way to exploration in areas that are currently protected.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may yet be tapped for the 16 billion barrels of oil that the White House says lies under it -- more than the oil of Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and New Mexico combined.

The administration hopes a budget measure passing through Congress in the autumn would enable "responsible development" of the 19.6 million acre (7.9 million hectare) region.

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