Subsidizing Industry With Half-Baked Policy

Rechargeable batteries need cheap electricity.

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
—Song of Solomon

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Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) is right to say a "partnership" between government and industry is essential to promoting a vibrant economy capable of competing globally. This particularly on "research and development" fronts, where the fruits of discovery can transform industry and commerce. However, the devastating extent to which this partnership has been scaled back over recent decades rather makes the "start" being celebrated in the following piece a shallow, Pyrrhic victory...




Whether joint development of battery technology opens efficient productivity-enhancing leverage points worthy of government subsidy is debatable on account of our insane halt of nuclear power development here in the United States. Were we instead aggressively moving toward independence from hydrocarbon-based fuel sources for our electricity production with a massive build-out of state-of-the-art nuclear power plants, then there would no debate. On this note, too, it should be said that, windmills simply do not cut the mustard — not given their cost and their minimal power production.

—Tom Chechatka