Remember when Joe Biden promised to treat the Saudis, and especially Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, like “pariahs” over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? Good times, good times … At the time two years ago, Biden even made clear that the target of his ire would be the crown prince, and that he would make the entire Saudi nation “the pariah that they are”:

What a difference a lot of oil makes, eh? Biden famously went to Riyadh this summer to fist-bump the man he publicly accused of ordering Khashoggi’s murder to get MBS to pump more oil on our behalf. Instead, the Saudis cut production after Biden blew up the attempted diplomacy in his defense of the meeting, which everyone recognized as a giant FU to Biden.

So what does Biden do now? Hold the pariahs accountable, or suck up even more to the leader of a key strategic ally who Biden alienated for cheap political points in the campaign? If you picked Door Number 2, collect your prize:

The Biden administration has declared that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia should be granted immunity in a U.S. legal case over his role in the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, effectively blocking yet another effort to hold the kingdom’s leader accountable for the grisly crime. …

The action by the Biden administration angered human rights activists, who say that failing to punish Prince Mohammed, widely known as M.B.S., for the killing of a high-profile journalist could encourage other autocrats to do the same.

“Caving into M.B.S.’ immunity ploy — when silence was an option for the administration — not only rewards M.B.S. for his intransigence, including continued attacks on activists in the U.S., but signals GO to tyrants around the world,” Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of DAWN, a human rights group co-founded by Mr. Khashoggi, wrote on Twitter.

If autocratic leaders have oil and money, Ms. Whitson wrote, “You’re safe, whatever your crimes.”

That’s not a complete picture, of course. This particular autocrat holds a strategic value in containment of Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror and a renegade state that wants to control the region. That’s one reason why Biden should have approached the Khashoggi issue with more nuance and subtlety in the first place, but Biden at the time thought that he could reach a detente with Iran in a way that his old boss Barack Obama tried and failed to get. The fist-bump meeting was a belated attempt to reset the relationship, but Biden blew that effort up in an attempt to explain away his meeting with a declared “pariah” — and by flat-out lying about what was said in the meeting.

The oil part isn’t exactly accurate either, but it’s closer to the point than money is. The Saudis have oil, and so do we — but Biden doesn’t want to produce more of it here because of his alliance with environmental extremists and global-warming activists. Instead of pumping it here, he wants the Saudis to pump it there, which puts more money in their pockets while alleviating the political pressure to expand American production here.

Now Biden’s trying to fix it again, this time at the direct expense of the Khashoggi family and their attempts to seek a little justice. Two years ago, Biden agreed with them. Now he’s throwing them under the bus for his own political survival. That may be many things, but among those are not “principled” or “courageous.”

It’s all unnecessary to boot. It’s a result of what Bernard Weinstein recognized as an “incoherent energy policy” at The Hill earlier this week, an incoherence that not only has warped foreign policy, but also national security and inflation:

As has been well documented, rising energy costs account for a huge part of today’s inflationary spiral. The price index for all forms of energy is up 20 percent from a year ago, while natural gas has jumped 33 percent and the cost of electricity has risen 18 percent. Average diesel prices are up 58 percent from a year ago, while stocks are well below typical fall levels.

Though the disruption of oil and gas flows resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and moves by the West to embargo Russian energy sales, are partly responsible for the hyperinflation in U.S. energy costs, inconsistent and incoherent domestic energy policies shoulder most of the blame. As the world’s number one producer of both oil and natural gas, and the fourth largest producer of coal — along with huge reserves of these resources — there’s no reason U.S. energy costs should be rising at such a rapid clip. …

The Biden administration is badly in need of a dose of reality when it comes to energy policy.  Natural gas is no longer cheap. The nation’s power grids are under severe stress because of a lack of investment in transmission and the replacement of base-load power like coal with intermittent sources like wind and solar. And American households and businesses face daunting energy bills this winter, in part because no resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is on the horizon.

Instead of using a rational and coherent energy policy based on the needs of today and the near future, Biden’s using a Utopian vision of energy that’s almost completely untethered to reality. When reality lands on Biden, he then is forced into reactive moves — like begging the Saudis for oil and kissing the rear end of the Saudi crown prince repeatedly to make amends. It’s a vapid policy enacted by the least strategic thinker of our times.