The state doesn't need an oil company 'extortion tax' to pay for clean energy research, already a booming segment in the venture capital industry. WHEN GAS PRICES GO THROUGH the roof, two things inevitably happen: Voters see red, and all kinds of nutty proposals are floated aiming to make oil companies share their pain. Hence Proposition 87, which would impose an oil extraction tax on companies that drill in California and use the proceeds to pay for alternative fuel research. Even by the warped standards of ballot initiatives, Proposition 87 — the result of confused economic thinking — is deceptively...