We've ALWAYS HAD the statistics to prove it is a fantasy - as far as a sound financial and energy policy.

But the reality is, the usurper in our white house will ENSURE that countless more billions continue to be squandered in worthless investment. This will allow him to once again capture the vote of the fools who elected him on more false promises of jobs and prosperity - at everyone's actual expense - even as he enriches himself by relentlessly looting the nation.

The only way the green energy nonsense makes sense would be if several of the laws of thermodynamics were repealed and the gravitational constant was reduced. Anyone know how we can go about doing this? Also does anyone know why my perpetual motion machine stops working as soon as it is started?

Howard Last-I don't know why your machine won't work, but I'm sure if Obama throws enough government money at it, it will!

Why is it that we're not really pushing hard enough for drilling? There has to be someone somewhere that can see the common sense of putting thousands of people to work and getting away from the Mideast oil at the same time. If I only knew who to talk to!

John: A brilliant piece.Unfortunately it will not sway the pretender-in-chief.Mr.Ofarce is dead set on making us as European as he possibly can.When your chief credentials are graduating from one of our communist infested universities and then working as a neighborhood rabble rouser it`s wishful thinking to hope for any kind of sensible leadership.

Richard Ryan

Lamar,Missouri (Birthplace of Harry S Truman)

Come now folks! The University of Oregon has plugged treadmills and stationary bikes at the student gym into the power grid. Students are now contributing to a green energy source as though they were beasts of burden harnessed to a gristmill. At last, hamsters with a purpose!! No studies yet on the carbon footprint eminating from the campus.

This is a fundamental problem with the Left. They simply cannot divorce their grand intentions from the realities of life. They mean well, therefore their projects must be tried.

Jay Richards calls it the Piety Fallacy. He cites an example of a celebrity urging people to donate money to an international charity. "We've got to try something, even if it doesn't work." But as Richards points out, doing nothing and succeeding are not mutually exhaustive possibilities. Our efforts could also make the problem worse, even MUCH worse. We must be careful about what we try and don't try, especially as regards the unintended consequences of our actions.

The Left and their green push never take unintended consequences into account. Obama said so himself on the campaign trail when he admitted that under his Cap & Trade scheme "electricity costs would necessarily skyrocket." That admission was so blisteringly foolish that it ought to have cost him the election, but the ever-helpful media rescued him from the folly of his own words. The admission reveals his total lack of concern for the side-effects of his policies -- and the effect those policies have on ordinary working people. It's the same way all over the Left.

Their propaganda on these issues is good, and they control virtually all the media, educational system and entertainment sectors -- so their propaganda gets heard everywhere, all day long. The only conceivable way to counteract it is to hammer the logic, facts and reality home at every opportunity. That's what John Stossel does here, and he does it well.

@MichaelSSEC ~ "They mean well, therefore their projects must be tried." You forgot to add, "and if they fail, it can only possibly mean that we didn't throw enough money at them."

The Left will not only refuse to admit that an idea failed (at least opening the door to try something else,) they refuse to admit that their idea CAN fail, and insist that any resemblance to failure is entirely due to not spending enough money on the idea, and not having forced more of US to do what THEY say.

Stoss, For years now we've been "urged" to use less of this and use less of that and generate less trash. For years we've quietly complied. And every time the bottom line decreased, the rates went up.

People were using less, utilities earned less, the taxes they paid fell, so what did our government do? They added "fees," "surcharges," "lifelines," "public emergency charges," and I don't know how many others. We (my family) uses, buy the meter, between 68 and 73% of what we used 28 years ago. Even with the family, kids, computers, high tech TV, and all the other "can't live without it" BS. We pay three times what we paid for utilities then. In addition to that, back then I could haul my own trash to the dump for the cost of gas. Now I'm forced to pay $56 per month for a city truck to come around and pick up my trash AFTER I've sorted it, and take it to the same dump. Should I find reason to haul anything to the dump - you know, things the city truck won't take, like an old dresser or bed - it costs me $150 to leave it. That's a flat rate charge. I can dump my crib or a whole household for the same price.

Tell me there's no collusion, greed or power trips going on there!

Those garbage guys don't need to be picked on--after

all they make only 65 to 100 K $ a year...... Shame !

Jennie: "I don't know why your (perpetual motion) machine won't work, but I'm sure if Obama throws enough government money at it, it will!"

Obama has a perpetual motion machine already; it's called the "welfare state". The taxpayers are the "perpetual" and his Democrat "machine" is the "motion".

Very interesting, I read all the comments, most were well thought out and to the point.

To me it looks like the country is divided between those who work and pay for a system that most of them do not support and the other side that desires a 'welfare state' the Uk tried that and we can see the result.

The division seems to be about 50/50 in the population. A ray of hope does exsist, the government has made such a mess of the country that many more people are looking at them, time to clean house and get some common sense back.