WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: What is the Matter with Kansas? If You Like Oil, Nothing.

Kansas’ oil boom is important for two reasons. Firstly, here we have another example of the incredible job-producing abilities of brown industry. Compare the furor over Kansas’ oil and gas explosion with the unfulfilled and overhyped “green” jobs, which have yet to materialize. And while green jobs will require subsidies for years, brown jobs don’t require federal upfront money — and will deliver taxes to the Treasury right from the start.

Secondly, just when it looks like America’s energy supply will dominate domestic politics and foreign policy alike for years to come, we seem to be literally swimming in new reserves of oil and gas, sinking new wells across the country while finding ways to squeeze the last drops out of old ones, and all the while leading the world in inventive and efficient (and increasingly environmentally friendly) technologies to get it all out.

Well, you can count on the Administration to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery if possible.