Trickle-down environmentalism lacks public supports

As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama declared his support for green energy development. “For the sake of our economy, our security and the future of our planet,” he said, “we must end the age of oil in our time.” As president, Obama called for putting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. He backed that call with more than $5 billion in taxpayer subsidies to jump-start the electric car industry.

The president also put in place a program that gave $7,500 to anyone who would actually buy an electric car. Despite that support, sales were minimal in 2011, so his new budget proposes raising that subsidy to $10,000 a car.