Amid rumors of a possible Republican-driven government shutdown over energy policy, one thing is clear: energy is going to be the political battle of the year, and Republicans are ready to play dirty. From E&E Daily (subscription req'd):

With efforts to force a vote on offshore drilling stymied before the August recess, Republicans are eyeing the continuing resolution as potentially the next major front in the fight over energy policy, raising the specter of the first government shutdown in 13 years.

Conservative leaders in both chambers made clear yesterday that they will press Democrats to not keep the offshore drilling and oil shale development moratoriums in place when Congress takes up the fiscal 2008 continuing resolution at the end of September. Because the two bans were included as part of the Interior Department's funding measure, they would likely be continued as part of the CR.

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"I think we all have learned, Democrats and Republicans, that shutting down the government doesn't work very well," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev). Republicans "will suffer even more at the polls, as Gingrich found out."

On the political playground, the Republicans are poised to fire a slingshot, and the Democrats are whining for the teacher. But nobody likes a tattletale, and if the Dems want a chance at winning public favor, they're going to have to acquire some chutzpah of their own. So far, they've gleefully called out the Republicans for their hollow solutions to the energy crisis, counting on a truth-telling crusade to rain on the Republican parade. But it's going to take a more captivating strategy than that to counter "drill, baby, drill."

Their recently unveiled plan to stymie Republicans by embracing drilling is painfully inadequate. It calls for a renewable energy mandate, energy-efficiency measures for buildings, and oil industry tax provisions, but a renewable energy mandate is not enough. What matters above all is to keep the renewable energy sector booming, and with the Production Tax Credits and Investment Tax Credits for the emerging renewable industries due to expire at the end of the year, securing their renewal should be the first priority.

This is the battle of the century, and Democrats are losing it. It's time for Democrats to reframe their messaging and strategy, or risk looking like the party that doesn't take the energy challenge seriously.