In the initial stages of the program, I guess heavy lift would not be required. DELTA and ATLAS would be sufficient to launch a CEV, robotic rovers, satellites, robotic tugs and construct early manned lunar expeditions in LEO.

However if the 'reason to go' back to the moon is to exploit its mineral resources and at the same time build up a solid space industry and infrastructure and using this capacity to proceed on to Mars (and dare I say stake a territorial claim), then heavy lifting capacity for such items as a lunar space station at L1, bulldozers, nuclear reactors, fuel storage tanks etc is essential.

I think tax payers dollars would be better spent on the next stages of rocketry development, i.e nuclear, ion, and re-usable chemical such as would be needed for landers (like the LM descent engine) and long term space use.

Licensing Energia technology then becomes more politically acceptable, even more so if production is carried out in the US. As with the licensing of the UK harrier jet, US production methods and technology transfered from the EELV programs could make significant savings in construction and launch costs. Russia will obviously benefit from this arrangement by getting some return on their original investment. This may help to revive their space construction industry a push forward the cause of manned space exploration.