President Obama and the rest of his Administration remain vigilant in their attempt to convince Americans that “green energy” and “green jobs” are real. The only reality seen in this Administration’s “green jobs” push is the consequence of Big Government intervening into the private markets.
Although these failed renewable energy companies—backed by OUR tax dollars—filed for bankruptcy, it wasn’t before they used the Department of Energy's (DOE) cash to fund six-figure bonuses.
As shocked as ABC seems by this story, I—along with other free enterprise advocates—hardly find it to be a revelation. In fact, back on November 2, I testified before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending that this Administration’s “green energy” plan was a way for the President to dole out billions of taxpayer dollars to help pay back his political friends.
Others agreed. Including Peter Schweizer, whose book Throw Them All Out detailed how the Department of Energy accepted loan-guarantee programs to energy companies “run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers.”
In an excerpt from Schweizer’s book, he details one stimulus program run by the DOE, called the 1705 Loan Guarantee Program:
In the 1705 government-backed-loan program [alone], for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party. The grant and guaranteed-loan recipients were early backers of Obama before he ran for president, people who continued to give to his campaigns and exclusively to the Democratic Party in the years leading up to 2008. Their political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy. It brought them returns many times over.
This week, President Obama briefly addressed a question on the nation’s rising gas prices in his first 2012 news conference. After rhetorically asking, "Do you think the president of the United States going into reelection wants the gas prices to go up?" Obama said there is “no silver bullet” to making gas prices go down.
Later in the week, Obama headed to North Carolina proclaiming that Americans must “wean [themselves] off of the old and grab the new,” and declared how has called on Congress to eliminate tax incentives for oil and natural gas.
This is why Obama continues to ignore gas prices exceeding $5 per gallon. He hopes that this will force Americans to buy into his notion that “green energy” is an immediate reality. Even his Department of Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, admitted last week, that this Administration’s overall goal is not to reduce gas prices, but “to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy.”
Chu’s comments allude to just how out-of-touch Obama and his Administration is when it comes to effective business practices. Instead of allowing America’s free market economy to create self-sustaining alternative energy, his Obama’s Big Government approach thinks that throwing taxpayer money at these firms will fix the problem.
In his State of the Union address, Obama vowed to have “one million electric cars on the road by 2015.” This will never become a reality by giving handouts to political friends and offering bailouts to a failing American auto industry.
The best way to remain competitive in the global market is to make product improvements and understand the consumer’s needs. America is still dependent on foreign oil, and it will continue to be as long as the government continues to meddle in free enterprise. The government is not capable of deciding winners and losers—especially when the only winners are Obama’s political donors.
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