Allard, it's like he's not even trying anymore

Reading Senator Allard's defense of his party and president's oil shale plans in this mornings Post one gets the sense that his heart really isn't in it. The oped meanders, gently touching on some of the high-points of the pro-development talking points but there's no fire in the belly, no sense of conviction, no sense that he truly believes the non-sense that he's writing. He doesn't point to objections by the plans detractors, take them on and prove that he is right and they are wrong. It's a flacid piece of writing that doesn't actually make the case for developing oil shale as much as it reminds us that it is critically important that we find alternatives to foreign oil but that oil shale is actually about shoveling more stacks of cash to domestic oil companies.

If Wayne Allard is really serious about oil shale development and making sure that it drives down foreign oil imports and domestic gas prices why not mandate that any and all oil extracted must be sold in the United States? Last time I check Wayne Allard is still a sitting U.S. Senator, he has the ability to write a bill that does just this.

Helpfully the Denver Post has an accompanying editorial that goes beyond the milquetoast platitudes of Allard and lays out the issues at hand,

What technology will be used to extract it?

How much water will shale production require, is it available, and who loses water if the shale industry needs it? Oil shale development could require massive amounts of water that's not even available.

How much energy will be needed to extract shale, and how many coal-fired plants will be needed to provide that electricity?

Allard, of course, addressed not one of these issues even though anyone who has spent a little time on this issue can recite them to you. The problem for Allard of course is that there are no good answers to these questions for those proposing oil shale development. Better to not talk about them at all than admit that it's not actually "politics" standing in the way but reality.

Republican's always have a tough time with reality.

Finally the Post points out what's really happening here,

Even Shell Oil, a leader in exploring oil shale, says it won't be ready for commercial leasing until probably 2015. Extraction of commercial quantities of oil, according to a quote in The Post, will come almost a decade after that.

Again, that's hardly short-term relief for high gas prices.

But it's election season, and Republicans are looking for an issue. Even Rush Limbaugh went after U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar on Wednesday for "standing in the way" of cheap gas.

This is about a party and, indeed, an entire political movement that is adrift. They faced historical losses in 2006 and will face even more losses in 2008. The public is fed up with their non-solutions and their lack of ideas that don't involve give-aways to favored industry's and tax cuts to the top 1% of income earners. Polling indicates that it's not the brand that is tarnished, it's the actual content of the ideas that people reject out-right. Tell them it's a Republican idea and a few dead-enders suddenly find themselves in support again.

Republican's have nothing and that's a tough spot for a political Party, especially in an election year. Perhaps though they could find an advocate for their non-idea ideas who's heart is in it a little more than Senator Allard.