With the storm of controversy over the legislative pay raise behind him, Bobby Jindal returns to the effort for John McCain. He tries to strike a moderate tone, talking about “two extremes” on energy policy, but does the no-conservation crowd really exist in the terms he paints?

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a Republican energy proposal that didn’t offer support for R&D on developing alternative energy sources. No one, at least no one of consequence on Capitol Hill, has ever said, “Damn the environment! Let’s kill the Earth!” I’m not sure why Jindal suggests the existence of such a position, except maybe to stress the gridlock on energy production — and that’s perfectly explicable through Democratic obstructionism, which even the Democrats have apparently begun to abandon.

Otherwise, this is an effective appearance by Jindal, stressing the reasonableness of McCain’s Lexington Project and tying economic concerns directly to high energy prices. He’ll make a great surrogate in the general election, assuming he doesn’t provoke another grassroots rebellion in Louisiana first.