Official U.S. energy policy is currently based on the premise that energy is the sum total of its external costs; that energy use is therefore essentially a sin, and that it is the government’s duty to enforce limits on the use of energy and to direct consumers to politically correct sources of energy preferred by the people in the government. This is a view held in faculty lounges, in anti-energy Big Green environmental groups, and by many politicians who never met a problem they didn’t think they could solve by passing a law.

With the exception of President Reagan, it has been the stated or unstated position of each administration of the last 40 years, starting with President Nixon. It’s also been the position of many in the mainstream media.