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.

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.

According to political scientist Alan Lichtman, one factor favoring President Obama's re-election is the absence of scandal in his administration. Lichtman may have spoken too soon. The reason can be capsulized in a single word: Solyndra.

Will we recover, unbridle ourselves of debt, innovate, pay for our national security? Or, is China fated to become number one, leaving us to live in a Chinese world?

What is the outlook for renewable energy in electricity generation--particularly wind and solar power--as a substitute for such conventional fuels as coal and natural gas?

Feed-in tariffs and solar energy make sense in the right situations, but must yield tangible benefits based on carbon reduction and market efficiency.

Although it creates only a slight reduction in the amount of solar energy absorbed by the Earth, solar radiation management should be a part of U.S. climate policy.