Washington Post Editorial Opposes Extension of PTC

An interesting editorial in the Washington Post challenges the largely unchallenged assumption that subsidizing chosen technologies is likely to accomplish anything.

Judith Curry's Climate Etc. blog had a related entry yesterday, "Conservative perspectives on climate change," which cited another call, from Professor Johnathan Adler, for a carbon tax - also calling from the right.

Wind power - The Washington Post:

"More clean energy is good. Achieving it with crude policy is not. Maybe wind power really is the future, or maybe it’s not. There are policies designed to allow consumers and utilities to decide, instead of Congress, and the best among them is a carbon tax. Instead, politics have led lawmakers to place hidden costs on taxpayers through subsidies such as the PTC, just one of scores of federal clean-technology programs.
It’s widely assumed that a carbon tax could not pass Congress, so green-minded policymakers are defending what they have. But if political reality demands that Congress stick with subsidies, there are better ways to approach them. A report in April from the Breakthrough Institute, the Brookings Institution and the World Resources Institute offered plenty of ways to design subsidies that encourage less expensive renewables. "

Read the entire editorial at the Washington Post Site: 
The report referenced in the quoted paragraphs is "Beyond Boom & Bust"