President Obama recently visited a factory in Newton, Iowa, that builds wind-turbine blades, contrasting the industry of the past - Maytag left the town in 2007 - with a vision of a future with middle-class green manufacturing jobs. Who could be against that?

One problem: According to Mr. Obama, that future apparently requires a clumsy array of expensive federal subsidies. The wind production tax credit (PTC) devotes more than $1 billion a year to support wind-power projects, rewarding them for every kilowatt-hour of electricity they generate, not for providing electricity inexpensively or devising cheaper ways to operate. But the president has... [continue via Web link]