I thought “I apologize to BP” was the bottom, but there just seems to be no lower limit to the abject toadyism of the Tea Party congress around the issue of energy. Make it oil, make it coal, make it dirty, or don’t make it at all, seems to be the motto.
For nearly a year now, President Obama has pushed the line that the United States has to be prepared to “out-innovate, out-build, and out-compete” the rest of the world in the 21st century. Republicans have generally been hostile to such a proposition, largely because innovation and building requires investments they’re unwilling to make.
GOP officials are loath to admit it, but keeping the United States in a global leadership position in areas of technology and innovation simply isn’t a high priority. If Americans fall behind in global competition, for much of the right, it doesn’t much matter — so long as the wealthy aren’t paying more in taxes.
It’s what makes comments like these stand out as noteworthy.
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), who chairs an energy and commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations, originally supported the [Department of Energy’s loan-guarantees program for clean energy] when Congress created it.
Now he says, “I think the administration is putting taxpayers’ money at risk in areas that are not creating jobs.” […]
“We can’t compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines,” Stearns says.
He says he doesn’t believe in any type of subsidy for industry. And, he says, where solar is concerned, it makes more sense to invest in research and development on a technology where the U.S. still has a chance of winning.
So on the one hand we see a White House committed to out-competing our international rivals, and on the other, we see leading congressional Republicans who believe the United States simply can’t keep up anymore, and is content to let China take the lead.
GOP officials, apparently, see this as a global competition, and are throwing in the towel.
I thought Stearns comments were pretty pathetic and at the same time ironic given that we are presently out-competing China for solar technology right now. You can read my blog post on the subject here: http://runonsun.com/~runons5/blogs/blog1.php/solecon/doe-loan-guarantees-smart-bet
Solar – despite Solyndra – is a great success story in this country and more people need to know that!
Well, it certainly isn’t helping America’s competitiveness to saddle our industries with hyper-expensive “green” energy when, thanks the the heroes at Haliburton, we now have vast stores of clean, affordable natural gas available.
Are saying that “green” energy companies less “heroic” than Halliburton? Is aggressively investing in the industry of the 21st century, as is every other modern economy, a non-competitive strategy? Do you follow “green” energy price trends? PV panels are now about $2 / watt. Inverter and module technologies are plummeting. Unsubsidized grid parity is probable in 5 years. European Feed in Tariff rates continue to decline, with the average capital pay back now at 9 years, as the energy yield from solar and off shore wind continues to improve.
http://bit.ly/o04RPU