Meanwhile, vast oil deposits lie undeveloped offshore and in North Dakota

Over the next three years, Americans will be required to replace nearly all their traditional light bulbs with cooler, more energy-efficient bulbs under a 2007 bill signed by President Bush.

But almost all of the 100 production lines needed to churn out new bulbs are expected to be built overseas. Similar scenarios are likely to play out for wind turbines, solar cells and other parts of the emerging global market for clean energy.

That's the gloomy prospect faced by federal officials and business leaders alike as they confront the twin challenges of combating climate change and trying to keep the U.S. competitive in the multitrillion-dollar race to develop and sell new energy systems.

My take: It is truly breathtaking to see and hear a government that bungles every task it assigns to itself now claim the wisdom to guide the gigantic American economy along the proper path to prosperity.

We are struggling through a government-made recession worsened by the waste of hundreds of billions of dollars on government-chosen make-work projects that produced few new jobs.

Now, in the name of creating a vital new industry, President Obama is pushing clean energy, which has done a marvelous job of creating new jobs in other countries.

The American public is turning thumbs down on the global warming alarmists. The cap and trade bill, which would impose new costs on American industry, is all but dead in the U.S. Senate.

There's a wise old definition of a fanatic: a person who recoubles his seffort once he's lost sight of his objective.