An economist’s ideal solution to all this might be to repeal the oil industry’s tax breaks, tax carbon to reflect its social costs, and let the market work its magic. But that seems to be, at least for now, a political impossibility. Putting money into alternative energy is as close as we can get to levelling the playing field. Solyndra was a big bet that happened to go bad. But we probably need to be making more bets like it.

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