Are electric car subsidies a good idea?

We all remember the Indiana Jones movie, where Evil Nazi Guy picks the wrong Holy Grail? Historically, the feds have chosen poorly too, says energy subsidy analyst Doug Koplow. Take biofuels: Washington has poured millions into energy from plants -- even though Koplow says the planting process can eliminate forests and land for growing food. A net minus to the planet.

DOUG KOPLOW: My concern is that a lot of these narrowly targeted, parochial subsidies will miss the bigger picture, and therefore make it much more difficult to solve the underlying problem.

Koplow prefers policy that's neutral, say taxing carbon emitters to reflect the true cost of carbon pollution. That treats all the alternatives fairly. But for now that's politically impossible, so electric car companies say keep up the subsidies for us as a way to do something now.

In Washington, I'm Scott Tong for Marketplace.