With gas prices plunging, the Obama team is still promising to have the government "invest" in green fuel technologies. What a recipe for wasting money! For all the obvious reasons, the odds that government will "invest" wisely are slim to none.

If green technologies must be invested in (and I think there is a sound case the government should encourage this, given the externalities (greenhouse, pollution, foreign policy) of fossil fuels), the way would be to slap a tax on fossil fuels. The money could be used to pay for Obama's promised income tax cut. Better to tax something we don't like (fossil fuels) than something we do (jobs). The tax on fossil fuels will keep prices relatively high, encouraging private investment in alternative sources of energy, free from the inevitable boondoggles of government "investment."