The Journal’s lead editorial today notes that, while the Dems have clearly lost on the energy issue, their party platform so far fails to include the terms of their surrender.
The editorial goes on to offer some (ahem) helpful advice on how the Dems might retake the intiative on the issue — which will require far more than the “de minimis” drilling concessions in the Gang of Ten compromise. Doubtless, the Dems are all ears.
You’ll recall that Chris Horner had a little chuckle yesterday at the expense of Colorado’s Democratic Senate candidates: “Maybe the Senate candidates who suddenly find themselves in a tight race because of gas prices could address whether they would vote to ratify [a new Kyoto] – nyuk, nyuk).” The Journal ran an all-smiles picture of Mark Udall and Ken “Objection” Salazar today:
The fossil-fuel love-in could also extend to oil shale. Abundant on federal lands in the Mountain West, these deposits could yield more than seven times more fuel than Saudi Arabia has crude oil reserves. While extraction technology is still a work in progress, the immediate hitch is that a pilot leasing program was deliberately killed last year in legislation offered by Colorado’s Democratic Senator, Ken Salazar. His partner in imposing that exploration ban was none other than House Democrat Mark Udall, who is now running for Colorado’s open Senate seat.
Mr. Udall recently had his own pro-drilling epiphany, after weeks of getting pounded on the issue by his Republican opponent, Bob Schaffer. Mr. Udall’s lead in the polls has vanished. “We’ve got to produce our own oil and gas here in our country,” he now says in a new TV spot. But a campaign ad isn’t enough. Surely, Mr. Udall will now want to acknowledge his mistake of a year ago and fight to lift the oil-shale ban on the House floor next month. That is, unless his new pro-drilling rhetoric is merely campaign triangulation that he doesn’t really believe.