Despite this support, renewable electricity has only a small share of the market, and ongoing developments in the market for competitive fuels—in particular, the prospect of declining prices for natural gas—make it likely that renewable electricity will continue to face severe constraints in terms of competitiveness for many years to come.

Despite widespread political support and large direct and indirect subsidies from both the federal and stategovernments, renewable electricity—wind and solar power, in particular—produces only 3.6 percent of USpower generation. This small market share suggests inherent limitations that can be overcome only at veryhigh cost.

A number of rationales for renewable electricity support usually are offered in support of those public policies; whatever their surface plausibility, they are deeply problematic both conceptually and in terms of the available data.

Ever since Richard Nixon's call for "energy independence," U.S. Presidents have talked about energy policy, mostly incoherently. Continuing that tradition, President Obama is now crisscrossing the country and giving speeches touting his administration's energy plan, the "Blueprint for Energy Security."

Energy is entering a new round of political neglect from both parties, but government should pursue a policy to drive energy innovation.

The energy crisis is an artificial one created by bad policies.

Waxman-Markey is a bundle of contradictions.

The authorsfind that higher population U.S. states have more pages of legislation and adopt particular laws earlier in their history.