We don't know what technologies will win out. When money is thrown at one for political reasons, its quite possible that other more viable technologies don't g

We don't know what technologies will win out. When money is thrown at one for political reasons, its quite possible that other more viable technologies don't get developed. And if an alternative like solar or wind is truly viable, it will succeed. What we need to do is make sure that all of the costs of oil are paid for by its users. We shouldn't be spending hundreds of billions ensuring a cheap supply with foreign policy. All we're doing is hiding the true cost of its instability. And if things like oil are creating other indirect problems, its use should be taxed to pay for those costs. That will allow alternatives that don't have the same problems to compete. But to pick a solution the way the government does and throw money at it is a wasteful strategy. They're doing the same thing with electric cars. Both the federal and California governments will give thousands in deductions for this particular solution. This hides the true costs. And we ignore that the additional electricity probably comes from burning fossil fuels anyway. Most of the technologies that created the wealth we enjoy came from private risk taking, not politically fashionable government money spraying. Divining the future is very difficult and best done with distributed intelligence with a great diversity of perspectives all competing with each other, not with any one particular brain installed in Washington.