A basic maneuver in basketball, US President Barack Obama's favorite sport, is the head fake. In it, a ball handler turns his or her head one way before dribbling or passing in a different direction. The play works when the defender commits position to the misdirection.Obama's administration has executed a grand head fake on environmental policy. On Mar. 31 it feinted in one direction on offshore oil and gas leasing. The next day it darted the other way on climate change. Media attention focused on prospects for the first Outer Continental Shelf leasing in 3 decades off the East Coast and new offerings in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. But the Environmental Protection Agency's drive to the b...