Well, Hurricane Ike didn't destroy the Gulf Coast refineries, oil dipped below the magic $100 threshhold, today's headlines are preoccupied with another collapse of an historic Wall Street firm, and the presidential campaign drones on from one manufactured crisis to another.

Oh, and did you know the U.S. Senate did what it does best -- talk -- about energy at a "summit" last week? For all the earnest talk about a new Marshall Plan from industry pros, the news -- the old news, as it were --  came from the ranking members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee positioning themselves for yet another battle about offshore drilling that will be used to create more background noise for the fall campaign.  All the talk won't produce one more cubic foot of natural gas, one kilowatt of electricity or save one barrel of oil, but will energize phony debates about which candidate is better able to promise "cost-free" fuel for our future.

And that is what our most defining election since 1980 will be about, mere weeks before oil and electricity prices probably set records in the dead of next winter.