An all-purpose rationale for rationing in its many permutations has been the progressives' preferred apocalypse, the fear of climate change. But environmentalism as the thin end of an enormous wedge of regulation and redistribution is a spent force. How many Americans noticed that the latest United Nations climate change confabulation occurred in December in Durban, South Africa?

The futility of this nullity signaled the end -- probably for decades, if not forever -- of a trivial pursuit that began 14 years ago with the Kyoto Protocol that the U.S. Senate would not even bring to a vote. The pursuit was for a 194-nation consensus obligating a few nations to transfer enormous wealth to many other nations' governments, to be politically distributed by them, with the supposed effect of ending global warming, if such proves to be.

Meanwhile, back in the nation that probably would have ponied up the largest portion of this money, sales of the electric-powered Chevrolet Volt were falling short of General Motors' goals even before reports about fire hazards in crash tests. And a Wall Street Journal headline proclaimed: "Americans Embrace SUVs Again."