Earlier this year, when the White House weighed in on the landmark affirmative action case before the Supreme Court, President Bush said he opposed racial quotas but left unanswered the crucial question of whether race can be a factor in government programs.

The administration has now given an answer to that question -- not in a legal brief but in a little-noticed statement on energy policy, of all things. At the end of a four-page official "Statement of Administration Policy" on energy legislation, the administration included two sentences that, in the view of both supporters and opponents of affirmative action, make clear that government cannot consider racial diversity in admissions, grants and the like.