We heard throughout the campaign of President Obama’s “all of the above” energy policy. That was then. This is now. About 48 hours after he was assured of reelection, the president’s Interior Department issued a plan to close to oil shale development 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West to oil. These acres were targeted for oil shale exploration and development by the prior administration. Instead, only some 677,000 acres would be open for oil shale exploration, and an additional 130,000 for tar sands production. The reason for excluding so much acreage from development includes a desire to protect sage grouse habitats and land with “wilderness characteristics.”

Whether this decision is based on a careful analysis of costs and benefits I do not know. But it is reasonable to assume that the studies, if any, that underlie this decision were not completed immediately after, rather than before the election. They were almost certainly in hand, but their release delayed until after the results of the election were known so as not to cast doubt on the sincerity of the president’s devotion to “all of the above.”