The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: Deep trouble

However you measure the full cost of a gallon of gas, pollution and all, Americans are nowhere close to paying it. Indeed, their whole energy industry—from subsidies for corn ethanol to limited liability for nuclear power—is a slick of preferences and restrictions, without peer. The tinkering that will follow this spill will merely further complicate it.

…. But if the politicians are really as committed to “cleaning up” the energy industry as they now claim, far more could be achieved by reducing the subsidies and introducing a carbon tax. That may seem a long way from the calamity in the Gulf; but in the long run those other murky waters also need to be cleaned up.

From The Economist.