Editor's note: This originally was published July 5, 2008. Actually, what we need is an international energy policy, but the Trump administration wants none of that. So, again, it's left to the states to act.
Jon Huntsman correctly asserted this week that nature, indeed, abhors a vacuum.
The Utah governor's claim that politics won't stand for it either is an indictment of the leadership coming on the national energy policy front.
But too often the vacuum from the political arena ends up being nothing more than an obnoxious sucking sound that makes a lot of noise but doesn't accomplish much of anything.
That's the likely direction that will come from the Western Governors' Association meeting this week in Wyoming. Frustrated by the inability of Congress and the Bush administration to push through a comprehensive energy policy, the governors decided that they will step into the fray and write their own national energy policy.
"This group is very, very serious about putting forward a policy recommendation to the next administration," Huntsman said Tuesday.
Thus begins that obnoxious sucking sound.
Undoubtedly the Western governors are frustrated by the lack of leadership and clear instruction from the federal government. There's a good chance their frustration is shared by the Northeastern Governors Association, the Southern Governors Association, the Midwestern Governors Association and any other association of governors that holds a convention.
There's a good chance those other groups have a slightly different vision in terms of what should be in that energy policy. That's why it needs to be a national energy policy.
If the governors want to see progress, perhaps they should contact their state party officials and encourage them to support congressional candidates who want to do actually accomplish something in the nation's capital.
