Our New Governor (heh) was in Washington today, promoting the idea of a federal diktat on generating electricity with renewable sources: Ritter notes that 20 states have mandates. Of course, if they're anything like Europe's Kyoto targets, we won't be meeting them this century. If you actually look at what the states are requiring, the real mandates haven't started yet, and we have no idea of the eccnomic effects of actually producing 20% of our power this way.
"This has to be a national effort," said Ritter, a Democrat. "This is too important a conversation we face not to undertake it now."
If it's an important conversation, we should be having the conversation, not jumping to dictate policy. Of course, like most big-government enthusiasts, especially when it comes to the environment, honest "conversation" is the very last thing they want: "We need to move beyond debates about whether global change is occurring." I'm sure James Hansen over at NASA will be happy to hear he won't be facing that debate. After all, it's not as though it's the 30s, or anything like that.
And don't kid yourself about the ease of making an about-face if it turns out to be a bad bet. We hear lots of talk about improving Mexico's economy as the antidote to illegal immigration, yet in the face of tortilla riots in Mexico City, plow right on ahead turning food into fuel.