The Great Destroyer by David Limbaugh

Author:David Limbaugh [Limbaugh, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2012-05-23T07:00:00+00:00

LIBERALISM MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU’RE SORRY

The Obama administration took pains to emphasize that the mere collapse of its flagship clean energy project would not diminish its enthusiasm for funding similar concerns. They were not the least bit repentant, acting as though the half-billion-dollar loss was just the ordinary course of business, to be expected in the pursuit of a noble cause, and that they would soldier on, with taxpayer money, experimenting with more such wasteful projects. “The president will continue to support these initiatives and highlight the American ingenuity, the people and the private-sector companies that are helping to generate jobs and foster our nation’s 21st-century clean-energy economy,” said White House spokesman Clark Stevens. The White House released an unapologetic statement declaring, “While we are disappointed by this particular outcome, we continue to believe the clean energy jobs race is one that America can, must and will win. The Department of Energy’s overall portfolio of investments—which includes dozens of other companies—continues to perform well and is on pace to create thousands of jobs.”43

In fact, these companies were not providing permanent jobs, and the jobs they did offer were created only through government infusions of cash. The inability of these companies to compete in the market was all the more remarkable given the free advertising Obama gave them with his incessant promotions and visits. Brendan Doherty, an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, observed, “You couldn’t get that kind of publicity if you devoted all your advertising budget to it.”44

Obama himself was unapologetic. “Now there are going to be some failures. Hindsight is always 20/20,” he said in an interview with ABC News and Yahoo! online television. “It went through the normal process and people thought this was a good bet.”45 We know that neither of those statements was true: it was an expedited process rife with conflicts of interest and favoritism, and many of his closest advisers thought Solyndra was far from “a good bet.” Whether the federal government should be making these kinds of bets in the first place is another question.

Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow was equally unrepentant, saying, “We have always recognized that not every one of the innovative companies supported by our loans and loan guarantees would succeed. But we can’t stop investing in game-changing technologies that are key to America’s leadership in the global economy.”46 Being a “well-intentioned” liberal means never having to say you’re sorry.

Unsurprisingly, even as the administration sought to justify the Solyndra investment, some officials blamed the entire mess on the Bush administration, saying the Bush DOE was the first to consider Solyndra’s application. That allegation was true, but it left out one important detail—the Bush DOE rejected Solyndra’s bid.47

Proving that the Solyndra denouement would not affect its energy policy one iota, just days before Solyndra shut down, the Department of Energy finalized a partial loan guaranty for $852 million to yet another solar energy company—Genesis Solar Energy Project, of California—with the promise that it would support eight hundred construction jobs and forty-seven operating jobs.

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