This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, April 26, 2011. I'm Caleb Brown.

There are now several so-called green energies that President Obama and others would use to supplant so-called brown energies.

But the consensus now surrounding a recent energy savior,

corn ethanol, is decidedly dower.

So what about wind, solar, and other green energy sources? Andrew Morris, Professor

of Law and Business at the University of Alabama, is co-author of Cato's new book, The False

Promise of Green Energy. He spoke at the Cato Institute April 21st.

Wind and solar energy someday may provide significant amounts of energy for our society.

They do not do so today for two reasons. First, they are expensive compared to the alternatives.

That's why we need subsidies.

If you compare natural gas and solar panels,

approximately 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas at a cost of about $4 can generate the same amount of

electricity as running an average rooftop solar system for 131 days, as Jerry

recently wrote in his Forbes column. Natural gas also has the advantage that can be used at any time of day, at any time of year,

can be stored until it's needed, and both the United States and the world have a lot of it.

Now consider wind.

Earlier this week, the Department of Interior announced the approval of the Cape Wind

offshore wind farm, more than 10 years after Cape Wind first began seeking such approval.

Of course, one reason it took 10 years was that it was a heavily politicized approval

process with noted green energy advocate, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, fighting the project

because he thought it would spoil the view from his home.

That's the sort of nimbee attitude that affects many of our

...