Energy Policy and Price Signals
For some time there has been a cry for a comprehensive national energy policy. Reliance on the free market to drive energy outcomes has led to a place the country does not want to be. Clean power technology development has been left to others, principally Europe. Oil imports to feed the nation’s transportation needs have driven foreign policy decisions and created economic insecurity. Foreign automobile makers are ahead on energy efficiency and energy technology. Climate change appears to be upon us whether we are ready or not. The popular answers to these challenges are aimed at new and different price signals to the marketplace—gasoline tax, carbon tax, cap and trade, cash for clunkers, tax incentives, tax credits, tax rebates, grants, feed in tariffs–and some thought it difficult to solve an algebraic problem with only three variables. Can there be a single “energy policy”?
