Energy and the Economy, According to Lawrence Summers

In early April, the Energy Information Administration and School of Advanced International Studies hosted a Washington, DC conference addressing energy issues. Heartland Institute Policy Advisor Jim Johnston, who attended the event, said the speakers essentially "condemned energy use."

Among those speakers were Energy Secretary and 1997 Nobel laureate in physics Steven Chu and former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers (right), director of the White House’s National Economic Council. Both, Johnston says, made interesting presentations on energy, the environment, and the economy.

Which is not to say Johnston agreed with either of them. Summers, he says, "offered a five-point program for achieving energy security and prosperity. All are suspect." Chu reported on the importance of "good data and analysis" -- not something with which one can disagree, but why then support the theory of human-induced global warming?