In Monday night’s debate, President Obama promised once more to develop the energy sources of the future.

When any administration, Democrat or Republican, decides to develop energy projects, taxpayers had better watch out. Government gets into the business of picking winners and losers, leading to cronyism and wasted taxpayer dollars. This is the question of “industrial policy” — of whether government should support business ventures in new technologies that are unable to secure private financing. Government appears to be worse at this than are private markets.