Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"On the energy usage front, the government has over the years given various kinds of tax incentives for people to use alternative energy sources, for example, solar power, or in terms of vehicles, hybrid cars. Many critics though say those incentives have been inconsistent and very small. There have also been major subsidies, and there are now major subsidies for the development of energy alternatives like ethanol, although there is now some questions about that. We do have a continuing debate within the government and outside the government about finding more conventional sources of energy like oil, concerns about the environmental impacts of that. Also, nuclear power could be expanded. There are safety issues there. So I don't know that it is fair to say we've not had an energy policy. We've had an energy policy debated, we just have not had a consensus. But there is one area where I think the government has had success, and that is in nudging the private sector to be more energy efficient. Over the last 30 years, we have had many new standards issued for energy efficiency in areas like appliances and in terms of miles per gallon of fuel efficiency for vehicles. And we've seen a big payoff here. In fact, average energy efficiency in our economy has doubled over this time period. So I would conclude that if we do have an energy policy, it is in promoting more energy efficiency."