Energy policy for many years has been impossible to discuss outside an environmental context. Within limits, the linkage makes sense. Energy production, transport, and use have environmental consequences that must be acknowledged and controlled. Distortion arises, however, when policy-making consistently favors environmentalism over energy supply and affordability. Longstanding distortion of this type now draws a new imperative into the energy-environmental policy nexus: food.Alarm is spreading fast over a rapid increase in food prices. World Bank Pres. Robert B. Zoellick recently said food prices have doubled during the past 3 years in a crisis that threatens to push 100 million resident...