ransley wrote:

Every time, EVERY TIME, the government interferes in the general
marketplace, one of two things happens:

1. The general marketplace flows around the government obstruction,
or
2. The general marketplace is FUBAR.

In the instant case, the government mandating, encouraging, or
subsidizing NG, solar power, or foot-pedaled cars is eerily similar
to the government genuflecting over our soy-bean saviors in a
classic book whose title rhymes with "Mattress Bugged."

What is the alternative.

In my view, the government should step back from the energy business.
Consider the infrastructure for gasoline and diesel vehicles. 50,000 gas
stations didn't spring up overnight; they were constructed to meet the
demand. It would be likewise for other vehicle fuels: NG, Propane, electric,
nuclear, whatever. The simple fact is that the government can't create a
demand without penalizing the majority of folks - even if it IS for our own
good (according to our betters).

As for the moaning about what will happen when oil runs out, there's a war
in the middle east, etc., if you had asked a New Yorker in 1900 what would
transportation be like in a 100 years when the population increased
twenty-fold, he'd ask: 1) Where would we get all the horses? and 2) What
would we do with all the horse ****?

These potential problems, most problems, indeed, all problems, have a way of
working themselves out.