Smart questions on energy

While Thomas Friedman continues to prattle endlessly about our need for a national energy policy, Larry Kudlow asks some very good questions:

But why do we need a planned economy for energy or anything else? Why not a fully deregulated free market for energy where prices allocate production and consumption?

And why not allow the current $130-a-barrel oil price to open the door to a full portfolio of energy resources, including offshore drilling, Alaska, nuclear power, oil shale, conversion of coal and natural gas to liquid fuel, and the development of so-called alternative-energy sources such as solar, wind, and various cellulosic investments (although this latter group may never contribute more than 10 percent to our energy needs)? A true free-market approach wouldn't pick winners and losers with heavy subsidies or penalties.

Read the whole thing.