But it's what happens when varied economic interests compete for the favor and attention of government. Where money is to be had -- as at the federal trough -- no small supply of eager beavers will be seen jostling for a bite. The indicated solution would seem to be, quit piling the trough so full, not least in the interest of efficiency.

 What you don't want, from a policy standpoint, is for people to engage in particular enterprises, and lines of research, just because that's where the money is. You want them to use their own creativity and initiative, looking not for what the bureaucracy wants but instead for what actually works. In energy, as in so many other economic matters, the public weal seems far better served when the government gets out of the way instead of shaping its objectives and solutions to meet political needs.

 Of course, it might have been worse. The nation will survive and businessmen, who don't make profits by being stupid, will contrive to stumble over the government blueprints and eventually do some of the right things. Congress smiled on nuclear power development -- a strategy that political policy had begun frowning on a couple of decades ago. Likewise our leaders left the door open for reconsideration this fall of a modest drilling program in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge -- where we know there's oil. Let's get on with it. In other words, let's actually do something!