The energy policy debate is well informed by history. So many ‘silver bullets’ being proffered by the Obama Brain Trust (‘smartest guys in the room’?) energy interventionists/transformationists are yesterday’s failures. As F. A. Hayek would put it, the Holdren-Chu approach to energy suffers from the ‘fatal conceit’ and cannot expect to be cost-effective in addressing the alleged problem.
Whither the Electric Vehicle
Take the electric vehicle versus the internal combustion engine. The market verdict of a century ago still holds–and for the same reasons. Thomas Edison was correct to pronounce the verdict to Henry Ford in 1896.
Edison himself labored to make batteries more economical for the transportation market, but the problem of weight and poor energy density could not be overcome. A news splash in 1914 by Ford Motor Company of an “experimental” car, the “Ford Electric” that would sell for $900 and have a range of 100 miles, based on Edison’s work, described as “Mr.…