Larry Summers at EIA 2010 Energy Conference

After the long-anticipated and cathartic triumph of health insurance reform, it is not a shallow political consideration to ponder what brand of legislation Obama and congressional Dems will pursue next. On the block are immigration, banks, jobs, and, you guessed it, energy/climate. Despite promises made about coming Senate bill on the issue, the looming November midterms continue to make me, and others, anxious about the fate of such legislation.

However, building on the momentum of the Obama administration's newfound political determination (offshore, MTR, CAFE standards, Israel/Palestine, nukes), National Economic Council Director Larry Summers has put climate/energy policy on the table as "an absolutely crucial priority for the President."

At the Energy Information Administration's 2010 Energy Conference, Mr. Summers outlined the economic benefits of climate/energy legislation: providing the marketplace with certainty of federal policy; creating jobs in the short-term to build the foundation for a clean energy economy; spurring technological innovation, a critical input for our economic prosperity; and strengthening our national energy security. Nothing new, but it's extremely encouraging to hear these sentiments from such an influential member of the administration in an official context.

It continues to elude me the motivation of opponents to energy/climate policy, who must have some innate affection for a system in which, as Al Gore puts it, "the United States is still borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn in ways that destroy the planet." China, meanwhile, is spending billions of dollars monthly building infrastructure and financing technological innovation that will leave the US in the dust in an economic sector that affects agriculture, construction, transportation, broadband and...oh, right, EVERY SINGLE ECONOMIC SECTOR. Energy is the key to regaining America's economic competitiveness, but something tells me that won't stop Republicans and ConservaDems in the Senate from making this an even dirtier political battle than health care. Let's hope I'm wrong, and that Americans can come together and build a foundation for the future.