The Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill was likely the last hope for major climate-change legislation for a number of years. With Obama on the defensive and unwilling to spend political capital on the issue, and with Congress certainly getting more Republican in November, a great window of opportunity has been missed.

File this one under not at all helpful:

Stopping offshore drilling is not a realistic option, the senator said.

“Now we are not going to stop drilling in the Gulf tomorrow, folks. Let’s be realistic. There are 48,000 wells out there. One of them went sour. About 30 percent of our transportation fuel comes from the Gulf. You think Americans are going to suddenly stop driving to work tomorrow? Do you think people are going to stop driving the trucks to deliver the goods to the department stores? Not going to happen,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

This goes beyond the strictly political argument I’ve heard from staffers, which says that drilling is part of Senator Kerry’s energy legislation only because it may help pick up Republican support. It remains to be seen whether that political calculation will pay dividends or end up costing the bill more support than it gains.

Since the health care debate moved to the forefront, we haven’t heard much from T. Boone Pickens and his scheme to promote a massive conversion to natural gas-based transportation. But the octogenarian oil magnate is hardly fading into the woodwork. He is currently poised to up the ante and lower his standards with a new strategy and a new ad campaign.

Cheap gas does not mean peak oil theory was wrong, and it definitely doesn’t mean we should stop investing in green technology