It was only a matter of time before some slick operators came up with a way to capitalize on the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Turns out it was some of our government “servants” who decided to work the scam … or scheme, if you prefer.

Here’s how it’s coming down. Supporters of radical and eventually expensive energy legislation — known loosely as cap and trade — think all that nasty oil threatening southeastern shores and fouling fish and fowl is a great excuse to pitch alternative energy.

Now that’s a bit of a leap, but President Obama decided to lead the way in his address from the Oval Office. It started out as a speech to reassure everyone that BP’s feet will be held to the fire. But it veered from the “get tough” tone into the crusade for our “green” future.

Here’s how it went, in the President’s words:

“We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now. Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash America’s innovation and seize control of our own destiny. …

“The transition away from fossil fuels is going to take some time, but over the last year and a half, we’ve already taken unprecedented action to jumpstart the clean energy industry. …

“When I was a candidate for this office, I laid out a set of principles that would move our country towards energy independence. Last year, the House of Representatives acted on these principles by passing a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill — a bill that finally makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America’s businesses.

“Now, there are costs associated with this transition. And there are some who believe that we can’t afford those costs right now. I say we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy — because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security and our environment are far greater.”

It’s a fact that various bills to address energy issues in the Senate had sort of died on the vine. The cap and trade label had taken on a bad connotation — to the point that critics were calling it cap and tax.

The public had other issues to occupy minds, including the leaking offshore oil well. So it’s sort of ironic that this attempt to resusitate climate control legislation is being accomplished by using one of the distractions.

The fight continues to pass an energy bill in the Senate to roughly match what the House has already passed. The latest attempt was a bill introduced by Democrat John Kerry and independent Joe Lieberman.

We’ve discussed the merits, or really the demerits, of that particular bill. It calls for a 27-cent “fuels fee” on every gallon of gasoline to help finance the quest for all this alternative energy.

Wouldn’t we just love to pay that extra 27 cents every time we fill up our vehicles, knowing full well that it’s also going to run up the costs of food, clothing and all sorts of other essential items due to the additional transportation costs?

And, by the way, such legislation will eliminate some jobs and drive others overseas.

Actually, you’d hope that the clean energy crowd would understand that the free market has a way of taking care of such needs. The private sector, fueled by a profit motive, will meet needs for future energy sources. That’s already happened with wind turbines sprouting across the land, solar development under way and private ventures into planned “clean” coal generating plants. 

We need government-funded — make that taxpayer-funded — energy measures just as much as we need the oil to keep flowing out of that well beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

But give the alternative energy hucksters credit. They’ve got a lot of gall using an ecological nightmare to try to sell this bill of goods.