High Gas Prices = Good

Interesting interview about the candidates' energy policies (link stolen from Greg Mankiw's blog). My favorite selection:

Q: Is there anything in either candidate's proposal that would be particularly bad for holding down energy costs?

A: Most of the proposals are political and they involve subsidies to alternative energy sources. A lot of those subsidies are just ways of providing pork for different groups.

Q: It sounds like you are not impressed, to put it bluntly.

A: Look, what are going to be needed ultimately is a tax on carbon and a tax on gasoline -- a large one. Another way to have a tax on carbon is to have a cap-and-trade system so you only allow a certain amount of carbon dioxide to be emitted. That will raise the cost of carbon. A gasoline tax would greatly reduce gasoline use. It would create the incentives we need for other energy sources, including conservation.

This really seems like a no-brainer, but it's controversial enough that no candidate who has illusions of winning an election will touch it with a twenty-foot pole. This is more a reflection on the American people than on the politicians. (Deliberately taking advantage of the public's idiocy for political gain is another matter.)