I do not understand what it is about Al Gore that gets up the nostrils of the Cafe Hayek bloggers. Both Russ Roberts and Don Boudreaux are bright guys, but if Al Gore is involved, the quality of their arguments plummet.

In this particular story, we see Russ Roberts, a professor of economics, praising this line of reasoning:

1. Al Gore proposes a national goal of generating all U.S. energy from renewable sources.
2. The Pickens Plan is to generate one-fifth of U.S. energy from wind, natural gas, and biofuels, for an investment of one teradollar.
3. Therefore, the Al Gore proposal will cost at least five teradollars.
4. Bonus point: The Al Gore proposal is as fanciful as a lunar casino.

The conclusions are not supported by the premises. There is no evidence showing a necessary relationship between the Al Gore proposal and the Pickens Plan that would permit the cost of one to be used to compute the cost of the other. Russ Roberts would never let such logic-chopping go by in a student paper - would he?