William Yeatman

With Congress out all month, not much is happening in Washington, which is always a good thing.  But the debate is shifting noticeably.  For evidence, read this editorial in the Washington Post.  The Post has not said anything reasonable or even factually correct on energy for over a decade (they used to support oil production in ANWR).  In this editorial, however, the Post corrects ads being run by the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund on three key points about offshore oil production.  This is remarkable and to my knowledge unprecedented.  It isn’t an earthquake yet, but you can see the ground moving.

Republicans may be planning a crude surprise for Democrats this October. I mean crude in the sense that it will involve unrefined petroleum.

Forget about a candid national conversation on energy. As John McCain and Barack Obama campaigned last week, that much seemed clear. To lower oil prices (which were already dropping), Obama proposed releasing 10 percent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This is an atrocious idea. The SPR was intended as insurance against a catastrophic loss of oil from wars, embargoes, terrorism or natural disasters. It should not be manipulated cynically for political advantage. Earlier, McCain suggested suspending the 18.4-cent-a-gallon federal gasoline tax; that was another bad and expedient idea.

The Cold War competition between the United States and Russia — played out in Europe with the threat of mutual nuclear destruction — ended with the collapse of the Soviet empire nearly two decades ago.