Titus' Answer

The question is how much government involvement should be in the works?

Various government incentives could be used to start the ball rolling, but here's a better way of doing this. As one of, if not the largest consumer of gasoline, (think of the domestic military, federal agencies, postal vehicles, you get it) using money budgeted for fueling these vehicles, or better yet money SAVED fueling these vehicles by using domestically produced coal gasoline or ethanol is a big government step.

By creating an agency or redirecting an existing agency for the production of sugar beet ethanol or whatever, (I'm talking creating the physical plants, refineries and distilleries so to speak) the feds take a front row seat just as they did during the Depression with the TVA and the BLM. (As we've stated numerous times, Hoover Dam has paid itself off how many times over?) With the feds buying crops and not paying subsidies, all of a sudden it pays for people to farm beets, corn, soy, you name it. Joint government/private sector action and nothing even close to "socialism" or the like.

This sounds familiar to me... Wasn't this like four or five of the planks taken from my 2008 New Deal? I hate being right.

Does this answer the shift question enough? Because I can go on like this for hours. Or pages.