• Published: Apr 12, 2009

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Wind power has never been so nearly a national energy source than when high-powered politicians talk about it. And talk about it. And talk about it.

This is not a criticism of wind power, which is certainly part of America’s energy future; in parts of Texas, it’s a huge addition to clean energy production already.

Nor is President Barack Obama’s new head of the U.S. Department of Energy, Ken Salazar, wrong to tout the virtues of wind power in a series of hearings aimed at developing policy on energy development in the Outer Continental Shelf.

One of the hearings was held in New Orleans — appropriately enough, as the Gulf of Mexico is the heart of America’s energy production. But the hearings, two of the four so far, have been heavily weighted with discussions of alternative energies to oil and gas.

We’re for alternative energies, and the state and federal governments ought to be spending more on research at universities to make wind and sun power a bigger mix for the nation’s energy needs.

Salazar is aware of the issues. He was a senator from Colorado, an energy-producing state, if not one on the water. Still, it’s clear that offshore drilling is so contentious an issue in the new administration — even with Obama’s late-campaign conversion to the cause last year — that policymakers want to focus on things other than oil rigs off the East Coast.

We believe the hearings that don’t focus on expanding drilling in the OCS waters are majoring on the minors in energy policy.

The vast majority of the nation’s energy needs in the near future will come from oil and gas. Every barrel of oil imported is another barrel that the nation should not send money elsewhere to pay for if U.S. sources for energy can be identified.

Alternatives are great. Nuclear energy once was stigmatized but is now widely recognized as part of the mix for the future. But  oil and gas production is the mainstay of energy development, and a discussion of OCS energy that fails to promote early development of OCS sources in the eastern Gulf and off the Atlantic Coast is a nonpolicy.

“Early” development is, of course, something of a term of art. Vast amounts of exploration and production are possible in the Gulf over the next few years, because the production infrastructure is in place. Not only the need to learn more about the energy resources in the Atlantic but also the long lead-time for building rigs and supply boats and pipelines is vast.

Maybe the people of America already have forgotten the crisis of $4-a-gallon gasoline. Maybe Obama already has forgotten it was the summer gasoline price increases that led him to greater appreciation for offshore drilling.

But in office, the president and Salazar should major on the majors in energy policy.
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