As the wheels fall off the scientific case for catastrophic man-made climate change, the same old tune has to change keys. Regulating CO2 is a matter of national defense and patriotism. “Energy independence” has suddenly become all the rage.

Witness Sen. John Kerry’s (D-MA) reasoning about the carbon fee bill he Lindsay Graham (D-SC) and Joseph Leiberman (I-CT) are offering in place of cap-and-trade. According to Mike Gonzalez of the Foundry blog:

Sen. Kerry told the [Washington] Post last week about his legislative effort, “What people need to understand about this bill is this really is a jobs bill, an economic transformation for America, an energy independence bill and a health/pollution-reduction bill that has enormous benefits for the country,” Kerry said.

Gonzalez went on to note:

Notice he said nothing about global warming or climate change, the reason we were supposed to take this long walk off a short pier. Notice also he didn’t say it was about handing the political class the reins of the private economy.

But if “energy independence” is the big concern, then why not let Americans produce energy? Writing in the Washington Times, Sen. Jim DeMint began his March 2 op-ed:

You’d think the Obama administration is busy enough controlling the banks, insurance companies and automakers, but thanks to whistleblowers at the Department of the Interior, we now learn they’re planning to increase their control over energy-rich land in the West.

DeMint points out that the federal government already owns 650 million acres or 29% of the United States. Now it wants more and the plan is to get more without hearings, without votes, without even consulting the governors of the states who will be ceding their land to Washington.

Democratic Presidents Carter and Clinton both did their share of land grabbing, creating “monuments” to stop development. DeMint writes:

One of the monuments President Clinton created was the Grande Staircase-Escalante in Utah, where 135,000 acres of land were leased for oil and gas and about 65,000 barrels of oil were produced each year from five active wells. But, President Clinton put an end to developing those resources.

President Obama could do the same in other energy-rich places unless Congress takes action. At least 13.5 million acres are already on his Department of Interior’s real estate shopping list.

But Congress has refused to take action. Perhaps they are too concerned about energy independence to do anything about, er…ah… energy independence. Or perhaps it’s all about “handing the political class the reins of the private economy.” I’ll let you decide.