MATTHEW YGLESIAS sums up the frustration of many economists who want efficient gas/carbon taxes, rather than next-to-useless alternative fuel subsidies and surprisingly ineffective increases in CAFE standards:

Tragically, if you tell people you’re going to tax their ft ossile fuels, they freak out and your political career dies a swift and merciless death. But if you tell people you’re going to subsidize alternative energy sources the people will like that. Functionally, however, these are basically the same thing, except for the fact that the tax method works much, much better.