"politicians and bureaucrats are typically lousy at picking winners and losers."

The Post editorial board: Government intervention will delay the alternative energy future - Full Comment

Wishing doesn't make things so, and nowhere is that more true than in the alternative energy fantasies of ecoentranced politicians. Someday, no doubt, energy forms that are currently considered "alternative" -- wind, solar, biofuel, nuclear, hydrogen cell, etc. -- will be mainstays of the world economy. But which ones, for what purposes and at what cost?

For all the bluster of green-seduced leaders about how they are going to transition the industrialized world to a post-carbon future through banning, capping, taxing, regulating, legislating or subsidizing, the switch from fossil fuels to alternatives will be market-driven, when it comes. If politicians and governments were capable of planning, or even just prompting, such massive economic evolution, then centrally controlled economies would have been history's most successful.

More than likely, government intervention will delay the alternative energy future, since politicians and bureaucrats are typically lousy at picking winners and losers.