Government May Be Useful In Some Cases?
Californians may have found a use for government…
“Perfect gas plan is running on empty” The Financial Times p4 -
“Hydrogen-fuelled cars are not far away but filling
stations are… Work has already begun to try to break the Catch-22
situation of the refuelling network. California is the most advanced,
with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promoting a public-private project
to build a “hydrogen highway” network of filling stations… David Hart
[Centre for Environmental Policy, Life Sciences], head of hydrogen
research at Imperial College’s Centre for Energy Policy and Technology,
in London, says such “clusters” will support the early adoption of
hydrogen cars in small numbers.” No apparent link-prob sub anyway.
Let’s not get too excited about the possibility, but it seems that this “Catch-22″ may be an example of market failure that the government can actually do something about. Kick starting a technology revolution that is just too risky for private backers to support alone.
Caution is advised however. Governments aren’t adept at picking winners, so there’s every chance this will turn into an pricey boondoggle with no real benefits.