Mankiw, after watching Hillary Clinton:
For some reason, energy is one of those topics that makes politicians sound
like Soviet-era central planners.
Here’s Hillary’s official
site on the subject:
Hillary proposed a simple idea to help end the cycle of dependence: put some
of the oil industry’s windfall profits into a fund that would help develop
practical new sources of renewable energy.
OK, so there we at least get the addition of the word "windfall",
which might (or might not) imply a one-off windfall tax as opposed to something
more ongoing. Who knows. But it certainly seems that Hillary agrees with Mike
Mandel that the best way to develop alternative energy sources is for the
government to spend money on energy-related R&D. It’s certainly a
way, but is it the best way?