Energy pitch so simple it could work

A hallmark of legislative initiatives at the national level in recent years has been their complexity. Terrorism fears have seen the rise of the Byzantine Department of Homeland Security, an incredibly complex amalgam of federal agencies with a new layer of bureaucracy slapped on the top. Calls for help for rising prescription drug costs have led to a maze of expensive new federal rules impervious to logic.

And on and on. Nothing, it seems, is straightforward these days. Rube Goldberg, the early 20th Century newspaper cartoonist known for drawings of wildly complicated devices that did very simple functions, would feel right at home drafting bills in Congress these days.

With this background, it