While I’m in DC-politics-land, let me also draw your attention to what I find a very robust vision statement for our energy future. It comes from Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and took place during floor debate on S.14 last week. If you want to read the context of my excerpt, scroll down/search for the bottom of page S7706 in the Congressional Record.

This bill subsidizes two types of energy. That which few consumers would be willing to pay for and that which companies would produce and consumers would pay for in the absence of subsidies. I ask my colleagues if this makes any sense?

Let’s let the competitive market determine our energy future. Let’s let the market, with millions of individual consumers pursuing their individual energy needs, based on their own unique situations, steer this country’s energy economy. Let us not dictate to consumers and taxpayers how they should spend their energy dollars. …

Let me suggest that the greatest obstacle to affordable and reliable energy in this country is the U.S. Government. Before this body looks outward for solutions to our energy problems, it should look inward. It should identify those laws, regulations, and other Government impediments that prevents this country’s citizens and businesses from making sound energy decisions. We encumber the U.S. energy economy with all sorts of onerous and often unneeded and outmoded rules that raise the cost of energy and distort energy markets. Instead of fixing this state of affairs, this bill compounds these errors by further raising the cost of energy to American taxpayers and further distorting energy markets through subsidies.