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.

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.

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.

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

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."

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.

Could Obama's energy plan actually work?

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.