How Much Green To Develop Green Energy?

Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren have a column in the April 25 issue of Forbes discussing what a green energy economy would look like and how much it will cost to get there.  According to Taylor and Van Doren we have lived in a green economy - in the 13th century!  Mankind has spent the intervening 700 years making life easier and cheaper, in no small part by harnessing energy sources that are plentiful, portable, and cheap.  To return to the energy sources of seven centuries ago is going to cost on the order of 1/4 of the annual economic output of the United States.  This capital goes into overcoming the four negative characteristics of green energy that the authors identify: diffusion, expense, unreliability, and scarcity.  That subsidies are required to attract capital to these projects indicates that the economics of the concept are inadequate to properly compensate for the risks of the venture.  The money quote of the article:

If green energy is so inevitable and such a great investment, why do we need to subsidize it? If and when renewable energy makes economic sense, profit-hungry investors will build all that we need for us without government needing to lift a finger. But if it doesn't make economic sense, all the subsidies in the world won't change that fact.

I couldn't say it any better myself.