When moderate Democrat Heath Shuler voted in 2009 for the Democrats’ climate-change legislation, the Left was pleasantly surprised.

When energy giant Duke Energy supported that same legislation, the Left held this up as a sign of broad consensus.

Now that Heath Shuler is leaving Congress to run the lobbying shop of Duke Energy, nobody should be surprised.

Duke, which was the largest underwriter of Obama’s convention this year, has long lobbied for climate-change energy restrictions — which would profit the company. A guy like Shuler — who loves him some government regulation, but doesn’t engage in any anti-business populism — is the perfect fit.