In recent weeks energy policy has moved to the fore in the US presidential contest. This is a welcome change: front and centre is where it belongs. Sadly, the issue has come to prominence in a way that inspires little faith that the next president will get it right.

To their credit, Barack Obama and John McCain have repudiated the Bush administration’s neglect of climate change. In addition, both emphasise the need for greater “energy security” and “energy independence” – which is also fine, provided those terms are correctly construed. So far, however, neither has presented a good strategy for achieving these aims, and neither has even begun to prepare the electorate for the costs of such a policy. On this second point, in fact, it is rather the opposite.