2.3 Energy and Resources

2.3 Energy and Resources

While energy is needed to fuel a modern society, government should not be subsidizing any particular form of energy. We oppose all government control of energy pricing, allocation, and production.

Seems like a pretty simple platform, which again states "Free market". But it's always more than that. Of course the free market is the best possible solution to our energy needs, but many people mistakenly believe that the government should fund research into alternative energy sources.

I'm happy to disabuse people of this notion with the fact that most (perhaps all) of the significant advances in any alternative energy sources have come from private funding, with the possible exception of nuclear power. Even with that exception nuclear power was harnessed for war, no peace and peaceful adaptation of the technologies was left largely to the private sector.

Government interference distorts the free market, and much like the mortgage debacle currently being felt world wide, such interference will cause problems. Simply put, governments are not well suited in terms of core competencies, to identify, develop and deliver goods or services. They are good at some things, but being a business is not one of them. Therefore their efforts nearly always end in failure and while they are trying they distort the market making it unstable.

Worse, government should not be in the investment business at all because this not only distorts the line of business, in this case energy, but also distorts the stock market. Government rarely move with anything short of a mountain of money. Putting such money into any venture will cause the system to unnaturally react to the presence of the money.

Worst of all, unqualified politicians often try to dictate their uneducated views of right and wrong onto the people and the market by picking winners and losers. Very few, if any, private enterprises can compete for resources against a government that has both a taxable population and a free running printing press at its disposal. Small companies, the source of most serious innovation, have no chance. Politicians will pick winners based on such things as how it will bring jobs to their district and so on, and no on product worthyness.