Government cannot solve gas crisis.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

Gasoline prices that continue to skyrocket have consumers shaking their fists and politicians struggling to placate them. It seems that everyone wants to break our dependence on foreign oil, but no one can agree on what we ought to do about it. One suggested energy alternative is ethanol, which has been touted as the answer to everything from the fuel crisis to our supposed environmental woes.

"If ethanol truly fills a need more effectively or more cheaply than other products previously available, then ethanol is bound to succeed in the marketplace on its merits," suggests Martin Fridson, author of Unwarranted Intrusions: The Case Against Government Intervention in the Marketplace. "After competing with gasoline for the first half-century following the advent of automobiles, however, ethanol was the clear loser."

Despite advocates everywhere who believe that we should feed corn to our cars, Fridson warns against calls for a government intervention into the country's growing energy crisis. "Although using ethanol as a fuel has hidden benefits, it also has...