Republican Energy Fumble

It's somewhat ironic that an issue that was favoring McCain would be neutralized by a "bipartisan gang".  Sounds a lot like the way McCain joined the "Gang of 14" to prevent Bush and the Republicans from making judicial appointments a big issue.  With friends like Lindsay Graham, McCain deserves to lose, but it's sad for the GOP and the country.

I'm hoping that this fight ends up more like the illegal alien amnesty issue than the judicial appointment "gang fight".

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121815293390922431.html?mod=todays_columnists

Still, it was probably too much to assume every Republican would work out that their side was winning this issue. And so, last Friday, in stumbled Sens. Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Saxby Chambliss, Bob Corker and Johnny Isakson -- alongside five Senate Democrats. This "Gang of 10" announced a "sweeping" and "bipartisan" energy plan to break Washington's energy "stalemate." What they did was throw every vulnerable Democrat, and Mr. Obama, a life preserver.

That's because the plan is a Democratic giveaway. New production on offshore federal lands is left to state legislatures, and then in only four coastal states. The regulatory hurdles are huge. And the bill bars drilling within 50 miles of the coast -- putting off limits some of the most productive areas. Alaska's oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is still a no-go.

The highlight is instead $84 billion in tax credits, subsidies and federal handouts for alternative fuels and renewables. The Gang of 10 intends to pay for all this in part by raising taxes on . . . oil companies! The Sierra Club couldn't have penned it better. And so the Republican Five has potentially given antidrilling Democrats the political cover they need to neutralize energy through November.