TOP 10 GREEN JOB FIASCOES.

[sirjohn]

TOP 10 GREEN JOB FIASCOES

by  Human Events

09/24/2011

President Obama pledged he would start a clean-energy revolution that would create 5 million green jobs over 10 years.  Of course, when the government tries to intrude in the marketplace, bad things happen.  Such as these: the Top 10 Green Job Fiascoes.

1.  Solar debacle:  Solyndra Inc., which manufactured solar panels at its plant in Fremont, Calif., received $535 million in Energy Department loans, and President Obama talked glowingly about how the company was “leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.”  Instead of creating work for Americans after receiving taxpayer money, the company shipped half its manufacturing jobs to China.  In August, Solyndra declared bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers.

2.  Government Motors: The bailout that General Motors; received from the government came with a price:  The carmaker was tasked to create the ultimate green vehicle.  The result—the Chevy Volt—is a product with an exorbitant price tag that nobody wants to buy.  Despite vast government subsidies, GM only sold 3,200 cars in the first eight months since the electric plug-in vehicles hit the marketplace.

3.  Spanish windmills:  Spain’s quixotic quest to create a green-jobs economy should have been a lesson for the United States.  After Spain went crazy subsidizing windmills and solar farms, the result was higher utility bills for consumers, with a loss of 2.2 jobs in other industries for every green job created.  And each green job came at a cost of $774,000 to Spanish taxpayers.

4.  Solar debacle II:  Evergreen Solar Inc., of Massachusetts, which received $58 million in stimulus money and other government largesse, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August and closed its plant in Midland, Mich.  Not being able to compete against the Chinese and their low-wage workers, the company racked up $485 million in debt and cut 800 jobs, with more cuts to come as the company restructures.

[sirjohn]

5.  Weatherizing stupidity:  The city of Seattle received $20 million in federal stimulus money to help homeowners make their houses more energy-efficient.  Some 16 months later, 14 jobs were created and three homes were weatherized.  Most of the money went to a company to train workers to weatherize buildings, but the lack of demand for the service meant those trainees had no work to do.

6.  Green (union) jobs: After Obama’s stimulus package doled out billions to subsidize the weatherization of homes, the Labor Department delayed the project by seven months while it determined the prevailing-wage standards for those green jobs—a sop to the President’s union supporters. That is just one reason why the program turned into a miserable failure. In its first year, the program spent $508 million to create 600 jobs and update 9,000 homes nationwide.

7.  Green-car fiasco: Green Vehicles received $500,000 from the city of Salinas, Calif., and another $187,000 from the state of California as it promised to create 70 new jobs making an innovative three-wheel electric car with a $25,000 price tag.  Little wonder that company folded without making a single car.

8.  Biofuel bust:  Before Republicans took back the statehouse in Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell helped support the ethanol producer Bionol Clearfield with $27 million in grants and loans, and by issuing $67 million in tax-free bonds.  But even a deal with Getty Oil to buy the fuel couldn’t save the venture from going belly-up two years after its founding.

9.  Do-nothing government:  Johnson Controls, which manufactures batteries for electric and hybrid cars at its plant in Holland, Mich., received $300 million in taxpayer help and created a grand total of 150 jobs—or $2 million per job.  That must qualify as a huge success in the green-job world, as President Obama visited the facility in August, using the trip to attack Republicans and a “do-nothing government.”  Yes, Mr. President, sometimes doing nothing is preferable to shoveling money into a hole.

10.  Almost two jobs created in Vegas: Clark County, Nev., which happens to be the home of the gambling mecca of Las Vegas, received $490,000 in stimulus money from the U.S. Forest Service to plant trees in urban neighborhoods (more palm trees on The Strip?).  The stimulus that resulted from the grant to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home state created 1.7 jobs (one full-time employee and one part time) and 11 temporary jobs.  You get a better return for your money at the slot machines.

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HUMAN EVENTS is the news source President Reagan called his "favorite newspaper" and we still hold high the Reaganesque principles of free enterprise, limited government and, above all, a staunch, unwavering defense of American freedom.

[siboneyes]

Crony Socialism: Obama Gives $737 Million to Solar Firm Linked to the Pelosi Clan
by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, September 28, 2011

    It’s as if Solyndra never happened. The Obama Administration is giving $737 million to a Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve. PCG is an investment partner with SolarReserve. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law happens to be the number two man at PCG.

    The Energy Department announced Wednesday that is has finalized a $737 million loan guarantee for a Nevada solar project.

   The decision comes several weeks after a California-based solar manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration in 2009 filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers, setting off a firestorm in Washington.

   The $737 million loan guarantee will help finance construction of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a 110-megawatt solar-power-generating facility in Nye County, Nev. The project is sponsored by Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve.

    Crescent Dunes is the latest solar project to receive a loan guarantee from the Energy Department in recent weeks. The department announced a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa Solar for a solar generation project in California and a $150 million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies for a Massachusetts solar manufacturing project earlier this month.

   The Energy Department says the project will result in 600 construction jobs and 45 permanent jobs.

[sirjohn]

A Rebuke to Our Rudderless President

powerline.com ^ | 2/25/12 |  John Hinderaker

President Obama has proclaimed himself helpless in the face of gasoline prices, which have doubled on his watch. He is just fated, apparently, to be a lousy president. Now that it is a little late to try to blame his predecessor, he is out of ammo. Today Senator Jeff Sessions tried to buck Obama up with a letter containing suggestions as to how the executive branch might take arms against a sea of rising gas prices, unemployment and poverty:

The Honorable Barack Obama President The White House Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing today to urge your Administration to take overdue but necessary action to confront soaring gasoline prices. In the last three years, gas prices have doubled, draining the disposable income of millions of hardworking Americans. In 2011, the typical U.S. household already spent $4,155 on gasoline, almost 10 percent of their income. Yet some analysts now predict prices may rise this year to more than $5.00 per gallon.

In a speech this Thursday, you stated that “there are no quick fixes to this problem. You know we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices.” While we should explore a variety of energy resources—most especially those which do not put taxpayer dollars at risk—I respectfully disagree that we cannot utilize our remarkably vast untapped energy reserves to provide Americans with much-needed relief. I reject the defeatist view that says the nation that won two world wars, pioneered space travel, and overcame the Soviet Empire is now helpless in the face of high prices at the pump. We are not at the mercy of dictators, cartels, and events beyond our control.

Simply by removing the bureaucratic barriers imposed by your own administration we can begin to make progress. But we can go much further than that. Powerful action to harness America’s untapped oil and gas resources would place downward pressure on prices and speculation in the short-run and, by surging global supply, would serve to keep prices low in the future. Crucially, it would also provide millions of Americans with good-paying private-sector jobs; produce substantial royalties for local, state, and federal governments; reduce our enormous trade imbalance; and put an end to our huge wealth transfer from America to competitors oversees.

[sirjohn]

PART 2

I therefore recommend the following proposals for immediate implementation:

1. Restore the bipartisan 2010–2015 offshore lease plan to ensure that the 31 lease sales called for in that plan are completed expeditiously. Your Administration only directed one lease sale in 2011 and has announced just one lease sale for 2012, far short of the number of sales that would have occurred over this period under the original 2010–2015 plan that your Administration discarded.

2. Take all necessary steps to accelerate the leasing and permitting process for domestic shale oil production. The United States has recoverable shale oil reserves estimated at 800 billion to 1.2 trillion barrels, meaning our nation has potentially three to four times more recoverable oil than any other country in the world except Canada.

3. Maximize energy production from federal lands. As I and 21 other Senators noted in a January 25, 2012 letter to you, actual oil production on federal lands is now just 714 million barrels per year, a 16 percent decline from what was projected just five years ago. This decline must be reversed.

4. End the de facto moratorium on permitting for offshore oil and gas production.

5. Direct the EPA, the Department of Energy, and other federal agencies to grant all necessary waivers and approvals to oil and gas refineries to facilitate maximum production at minimum cost. Refinery expenses comprise 11 percent of the price for gasoline that Americans pay at the pump, but your Administration has imposed numerous regulations that have driven refining costs up, not down.

6. Abandon your proposal to increase taxes and fees levied on U.S. energy production by more than $40 billion. These additional costs would be passed along to consumers, taking money out of their pockets and discouraging needed domestic production.

7. Approve the Keystone XL pipeline and grant necessary waivers, licenses, and permits, where possible, to ensure expedited completion of this important North American energy project. The pipeline would carry 700,000 barrels a day to U.S. refineries, which is nearly half what the U.S. currently imports from the entire Middle East.

America has the potential to fundamentally shift the balance of power in global energy production—to produce more energy, more efficiently and more cheaply, than your Administration has recognized. Such bold steps will broadcast an unmistakable signal to the world that not only places downward pressure on prices in the near-term but helps deliver a future of abundant, affordable energy. Moreover, unlike costly short-term stimulus, achieving energy independence would provide long-term relief to both struggling families and our indebted treasury.

I look forward to working with you on this important matter.

Very truly yours,

Jeff Sessions U.S. Senator

The sight of Barack Obama confessing impotence in the face of what is really a rather simple problem of supply and demand is pathetic. It used to be that only our enemies considered the United States a pitiful, helpless giant. Now our own president takes that view. November can’t come soon enough.

[siboneyes]

Newt Gingrich DEMOLISHES Barack   Obama  in debate.

by Peter Shepherd

march 2, 20112

"As an American I  am  not so shocked that Obama was given the Nobel Peace  Prize  without any accomplishments to his name,   America  gave him the White House based  on the  same  credentials." Newt Gingrich     (7/16/2008)

Some   people  have the vocabulary to sum up things in a way you can  understand  them. This  quote came from a friend in the  Czech  Republic . We have  a lot of work to    do. "The   danger to America is not Barack Obama but a  citizenry capable of   entrusting a man like him with the Presidency.  It  will be far  easier  to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to   restore the  necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved  electorate  willing  to have such a man for their president. The  problem is much deeper and  far  more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a  mere symptom of what ails America .

Blaming the prince of   the fools should not  blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools  that  made him their prince. The  Republic can survive a Barack  Obama,who is,  after all, merely a fool.  It  is less likely to  survive a multitude  of fools such as those who made him their    president."

Please open and   enjoy:

http://vimeo.com/37836183

[siboneyes]

The Debunker: Obama really is the non-energy president

by Mark LaRochelle

03/08/2012

BAJO BUSH EN LOS PRIMEROS 26 MESES EN EL PODER LA GASOLINA SUBIO UN 7%, EN EL MISMO TIEMPO CON OBAMA SUBIO 67%

With gas sellingabove $5 per gallon just blocks from the White House, President Barack Obama is already trying to duck responsibility. In his weekly radio address Feb. 25, the President said that “under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. In 2010, our dependence on foreign oil was under 50 percent for the first time in more than a decade.” This came two days after he told a crowd in Miami, “we have a record number of oil rigs operating right now -- more working oil and gas rigs than the rest of the world combined.” The day before, White House spokesman Jay Carney defended the President’s energy policy, saying thatthe soaring price of gas is “certainly not because of anything he hasn't done to expand domestic oil and gas production, because he has done -- taken significant action to expand American gas and oil production.”

BUNK
These claims are part of an orchestrated strategy to “try to head off the political impact of rising gasoline prices.” (If only the President were as concerned about the economic impact of rising gas prices!) But they are nothing but spin.

While it’s true that U.S. oil and natural gas production are up, this is not thanks to, but in spite of Obama. All the increased production has come from state and private lands, where the President has little power. On federal lands controlled by Obama, production has actually fallen.

According to an Institute for Energy Research analysis of data from the Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue, production of oil increased 14 percent and natural gas 12 percent on private and state lands in Fiscal Year 2011, while on federal lands, production of oil declined 11 percent and natural gas 6 percent.
So, what “significant action” has Obama taken to “expand American gas and oil production”? Let’s review his achievements:
As Secretary of Energy, Obama appointed Stephen Chu, who in September 2008 told the Wall Street Journal, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” (So far, so good.)

[siboneyes]

PART 2

	Oil	Natural gas
Private & state lands	+14%	+12%
Federal lands	-11%	-6%

Source: IER Analysis: Oil and Gas Production Declines on Federal Lands in FY2011, Feb. 23, 2012

As Secretary of the Interior (in charge of oil leases on federal lands) Obama appointed Ken Salazar -- who, as a Democratic senator from Colorado, on July 31, 2008, had stubbornly refused to assent to any drilling on America’s outer continental shelf -- even if gas reached $10 a gallon.

Immediately upon taking office, Salazar rescinded 77 leases in Utah, charging that the Bush White House had pressured Bureau of Land Management officials into making the sales. (Upon investigation, the Inspector General found “no evidence to support the allegation.”)

Following the Gulf oil spill, Obama asked an expert panel for recommendations; although that panel strongly opposed a drilling moratorium , the White House misrepresented the panel’s views to justify a six-month moratorium. After a U.S. District Court overturned the moratorium as “arbitrary and capricious” (a ruling upheld on appeal), Obama defied the court, issuing a second moratorium -- which he then expanded to five years (for which the administration was found in contempt).

As a result of Obama’s moratorium, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, crude oil production on federal lands in the Gulf of Mexico fell 15 percent in 2011.

All in all, a predictable performance for a President who, as a candidate, told the San Francisco Chronicle on January 17, 2008, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

Mark LaRochelle was editor at the National Journalism Center and contributing editor at Consumers' Research.