Three mayors in California want to see $1 billion spent "to make the Bay Area 'the electric-vehicle capital of the world.'"

Writing for the Pacific Research Institute, Daniel R. Ballon has his doubts about the plan, which "will prop up electric vehicles through tax incentives, favorable regulations, and rights to build on public land, as well as exclusive contracts for public transportation, city-owned vehicles, and government buildings."

Not only is the plan attempting to pick winning companies, it also threatens to choke off other technologies or approaches to transportation that might be more effective.

Ballon sees an expensive precedent to such industrial policy, the now-failed attempt to install free wi-fi across San Francisco.