It's tempting to call the shameful taxpayer subsidy for electric cars - vehicles that are unaffordable for all but a small number of wealthy Americans - this nation's costly little secret.

There are some ideas that, no matter how often they rise and how spectacularly they fail, just won't go away. Perpetual motion machines, for example. Passive exercise machines. Diets that work. These technologies sound great in theory, but don't seem to pan out in practice. Add to the list, electric (or largely electric) cars.

Once again, the regulators in California have decided to lead the nation in terms of vehicle emission standards, proposing to require that 15.4 percent of all vehicles sold by 2025 must be electric cars, plug-in hybrid cars, or (currently non-existent) fuel cell cars.

The private sector is entirely capable of developing EVs and other new automotive technologies without the need for subsidies.

China's recent suspension of rare earth shipments has signaled the need for America to take action long before there is a shortage of rare earths, and look to alternative sources and providers.

The electric-gas hybrid Chevy Volt is too expensive to be practical for the average American consumer and is designed to meet the demands of an ideological market fostered by upscale urban liberals.

Let’s play "Jeopardy." Round One: Science Literacy. Category: Evolution. For $500: Which is the largest demographic group to reject Darwin’s theory of evolution?”

According to Chris Mooney’s best selling new book, The Republican Brain, a follow up to his 2007 polemic The Republican War on Science, the answer is easy:...

Government subsidies for electric vehicles tilt the playing field, constrain the market's ability to operate, and betray a lack of faith in the ingenuity and vitality of the marketplace.