I suppose it would be a bit silly to point out that government "alternative fuel and energy" programs have already chewed through billions of dollars, long before Bush was elected, or even Clinton.

Anybody remember Synfuels? "Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles?" All the tax incentives for solar, wind, and other concepts? DOE? Seen the DOE budget lately?

It's been done. Done up brown, already. I'm honestly beginning to think that Leftist politicians don't have a memory longer than six months.

Kerry doesn't have one bloody "alternative" idea that hasn't already been beaten into the ground over the past thirty years.

The technology isn't ready yet. Nobody wants to pay twice the money for an electric car. Real solutions are coming, but it's damn sure government isn't going to select the best ones.

Ideas that might actually help us out, like a reasonable program of exploiting our own oil and gas resources (more important from a geopolitical standpoint right now than a market one) or a safer nuclear power program, make most Democrats fall on the floor and foam at the mouth. What's left? Forcing people at gunpoint into tiny little cars is a popular idea. Gunpoint is always a popular Democratic idea.

Read this.

Alternative energy sources will evolve when the prices of conventional fuels exceed the research and development costs for alternative sources. As Cato Institute scholars Ronald Sutherland and Jerry Taylor have pointed out, private firms may underinvest in "good" R&D, but government is far more likely to overinvest in "bad" R&D.

Gas prices are high, and so are oil prices. If this remains so, alternatives will be developed. That's how it works. In the meantime, tell Ted Kennedy to STFU about the windmills in his back yard.