The Green Economy That Doesn't Exist

Political Realities ^ | 08/05/13 | LD Jackson

[LD Jackson]

I saw this story yesterday, but didn't have time to do it justice. I also see The Lonely Conservative and Pirate's Cove have both already covered quite well. If you would, please allow me to weigh in on the matter of our government wasting another $500 million to train workers for green jobs that simply do not exist. I consider this to be another boondoggle government program that throws money down a rat hole. Given at how well they perform at this waste, one would think these programs were designed with that in mind.

This story originates with an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GOA) that tells of the waste.

Fox News - A federal audit shows that nearly a half-billion dollars in government funds was spent on training workers for so-called “green jobs.” The only problem is that not enough positions in the growing industry exist.

The findings -- released in a June report by the Government Accountability Office -- showed that only 55 percent of those trained were able to place in a new job, many of which were not technically green jobs. The $501 million in funding came from the 2009 stimulus law. The report also uncovered that the Department of Labor created a framework that led grantees to broadly interpret the program’s definition to include any job “that could be linked, directly or indirectly, to a beneficial outcome” which led to the gap between training programs and available green industry jobs.

This is not the first time the federal government has been guilty of trying to help an industry along by giving them subsidies. Can anyone say "ethanol"? Because of our government's growing propensity to pick winners and losers, ethanol was chosen as the savior of the environment. I was unable to determine exactly when the federal government began subsidizing ethanol, but is it possible that it was the beginning of what is called "the green economy"? Because of those subsidies, an artificial market exists for a product that does not work as it is proclaimed. I know that for a fact because I work in the automotive industry. Ethanol has been hyped as a better fuel, but that is just not true. Because of those subsidies, we now have a lot of farmers who are growing corn, not for food production, but rather for a fuel that does not work.

Since President Obama took office, he has touted the green economy and green jobs. That is why we have seen so many green energy scandals arise. Solyndra is the most prominent of those scandals, but there are others. In my research for this post, I came across an article from February 2012 that highlights what has happened with Barack Obama and the green jobs he has promoted.

Investors.com - Obama's green energy scandal is more than Solyndra, the failed solar panel maker that squandered $535 million of Obama stimulus cash and hosted the president for a propaganda visit. It's a series of green-energy companies failing despite the administration's ceaseless promotion of the industry and the unseemly White House ties that run throughout.

While the legacy media often shills for Democrats, sometimes an outlet surprises us, as the Washington Post did with this week's story outlining the shady Obama links to the clean-energy industry and implying the administration has engaged in first-class corruption.

Post reporters, for instance, "found that $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing flowed to 21 companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers."

Named in the story is Sanjay Wagle, "venture capitalist" and "Obama fundraiser" who joined the Energy Department, which "provided $2.4 billion in public funding to clean-energy companies in which Wagle's former firm, Vantage Point Venture Partners, had invested."

And there's Steven Spinner, a "bundler of Obama campaign contributions who," we noted last fall, became an adviser at the Energy Department where he "pushed hard" for the Solyndra loan. Spinner is also married to a partner in the law firm that represented Solyndra.

Going deeper, we find Steve Westly, identified by the Post as "an Obama fundraising bundler" who "served part time" on an Energy Department advisory board and "communicated with senior White House officials."

The Post reported that Westly's firm "fared well in the agency's distribution of loans and grants. Its portfolio companies received $600 million in funding."

Also appearing in emails examined by the Post was David Prend, another venture capital investor with "White House access." Prend's company, Rockport Capital Partners, has been an investor in "several firms" that raked $550 million in federal money. Prend is linked, as well, to Ener1, the bankrupt electric-car battery company given a $118 million government grant.

The pattern is clear. Bundle campaign cash for Obama, and get taxpayer dollars to be frittered away on trendy green projects that have no economic reason for being.

No matter how much the President wants to claim these scandals are all phony, the proof really is in the pudding. The evidence is all there. Obama has a one track mind when it comes to green energy, green jobs, the green economy. If it has green in it, he loves it beyond measure. That is evident in everything he does. When he speaks of jobs, many times it is in reference to green jobs. I believe that is also the biggest reason he is so determined to stop the Keystone Pipeline from coming to fruition. His love for green energy translates into a hatred of the energy that comes from fossil fuels.Consequently, he moves to restrict the oil and gas companies at every turn. Instead of allowing the Keystone Pipeline to be built, he would rather drag his feet until it isn't viable to build. Instead, he sends money to South America to further their development of oil production. Why not spend that money here at home? Because it goes against everything he believes in.

Many of us have said this before. The believers in climate change believe in an ideology. They believe what they believe as strongly as any cult. I am convinced President Obama is a believer. Thus, we are seeing a push for investment in a green economy that does not exist. He is doing what he can to pick the winners and losers in this race. He seems to believe he can help the green economy exist by pushing the economy down. That would be the economy that exists around the production of oil and gas. Look back at his first term in office and see if you do not recognize how he pushes them down at every opportunity.

Contrary to what the President believes, the products he is pushing do not work at this time. From ethanol to solar and wind energy, they are not currently practical. Maybe they will be in the future, but that is something for the markets to decide, not the federal government.

[OddLane]

Bump.

[fella]

Green is also the color of Islamism.

[BCW]

Obama driving the Economy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi72wlzXjcQ&feature=player_embedded

[subterfuge]

Obama’s “love” of “green energy” is far more sinister than that. It is outright corruption and THEFT of The Peoples money. Obama is redistributing money he is stealing from you and me. He IS A CROOK!

[Chode]

this is the only REAL green economy...