In years gone by you would hear about some girl who had been given a ring that looked like gold but left a green residue on the finger. Well, there were a couple of things that were clear to everyone. The ring wasn’t gold and the guy who gave it to her was a cheap phony. Those promoting green initiatives in power generation, automotive enterprises, and who knows how many other things, fall into that category, but unfortunately, they aren’t cheap. They are sticking the taxpayers with debts to the tune of billions of dollars for so-called green investments. Those investments are going down the rat hole and there is no end in sight.
I subscribe to the e-newsletter from Environment and Climate news. I received their latest edition for March yesterday which listed some economically green disasters for which the American taxpayer is on the hook. As you read this you begin to wonder what is wrong with the minds of those who promote this stuff. It certainly can’t be ignorance because we have historical foundation to show that all these ‘green’ initiatives are economically disastrous. They were failures when promoted by Jimmy Carter, and they are still economically disastrous. The only difference is Carter could be excused for promoting these ‘alternative’ schemes because no one really knew if these were good ideas or not, and society had been prepped by circumstances for just such an effort.
He at least could claim ignorance, and in this case a valid argument, since every scientific success starts with ignorance, which is later dispelled through the trial and error processes of experimentation. But now we knew the outcome even before they started. We were led to believe that the technology was “new and improved”, which has always been a great sales slogan, and a great punch line by comedians who parody con artists in some skit, or movie script.
Although I have no doubt that there were improvements, those improvements were in no way so advanced as to make ‘green’ an economic success, and they had to know it. In short, it is impossible to believe that this wasn’t a deliberate effort to fraudulently promote this to the American taxpayer, who is now on a “green hook” financially. Ideology and financial gain can cause intelligent people to fall for really dumb ideas, but this is inexcusable. I use this quote from Viv Forbes as an explanation for these decisions regarding virtually every green issue that arises; “The public has been misled by an unholy alliance of environmental scaremongers, funds-seeking academics, sensation-seeking media, vote-seeking politicians and profit-seeking vested interests.” Please don’t tell me they were now ignorant. They are driven by greed, ideology or both and someone ought to be prosecuted, starting with the politicos who signed these agreements.
He at least could claim ignorance, and in this case a valid argument, since every scientific success starts with ignorance, which is later dispelled through the trial and error processes of experimentation. But now we knew the outcome even before they started. We were led to believe that the technology was “new and improved”, which has always been a great sales slogan, and a great punch line by comedians who parody con artists in some skit, or movie script.
Although I have no doubt that there were improvements, those improvements were in no way so advanced as to make ‘green’ an economic success, and they had to know it. In short, it is impossible to believe that this wasn’t a deliberate effort to fraudulently promote this to the American taxpayer, who is now on a “green hook” financially. Ideology and financial gain can cause intelligent people to fall for really dumb ideas, but this is inexcusable. I use this quote from Viv Forbes as an explanation for these decisions regarding virtually every green issue that arises; “The public has been misled by an unholy alliance of environmental scaremongers, funds-seeking academics, sensation-seeking media, vote-seeking politicians and profit-seeking vested interests.” Please don’t tell me they were now ignorant. They are driven by greed, ideology or both and someone ought to be prosecuted, starting with the politicos who signed these agreements.
In an article entitled, Delaware Taxpayers on the ‘Green’ Hook as Fisker Can’t Pay Bills by Alyssa Carducci, she notes that “Delaware taxpayers may lose a $21.5 million “investment” as Fisker Automotive took taxpayer money to create green jobs but has yet to produce a single car in the state.” She goes on to say that the state will have to cover $400,000 in electric bills.
So how did this come about? She says that;
In 2009 Gov. Jack Markell announced California-based Fisker Automotive Inc. would be setting up shop in the state after he offered the company $21.5 million in incentives. Delaware residents were promised 2,500 green jobs in return for their investment.
And the results have been a complete failure to the point that even the “U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) suspended a $529 million federal loan to Fisker.” And it gets worse as she notes that; “Two months later, Fisker halted operations and laid off workers at a former General Motors site it had taken over in Delaware.”
My question has always been; how do they come up with these figures on how many jobs are going to be created with these initiatives? It runs the gamut of a few hundred to five million. What formula are they using? Where did they get their insights? And if they are that smart, why are they wasting their time in government? In reality these people don’t have a clue. People who pick and choose companies to invest in for a living have difficulty and fail regularly. Why would we think a politician or a government bureaucrat would do any better? As my friend David Hansen, who at the time was President of the Buckeye Institute, asked an audience to name one politician or bureaucrat who picked Microsoft as a winner. No one put up their hand and for good reason. There isn’t one.
“Florida State Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fort Walton Beach) will introduce legislation this year to repeal a state law requiring Florida service stations to sell only ethanol-blended gasoline. Energy experts say ethanol requirements raise transportation fuel costs, hike food prices, decrease gasoline mileage, and harm the environment in many ways.”
Even those who were going to stand against repealing this state law realized that “ethanol production in Florida is not viable”. All these ‘Feel-Good’ Mandates have consequences, and one of those consequences is that “according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ethanol subsidies and mandates have caused a dramatic rise in U.S. food prices since 2005, reversing 50 years of declining.” Are we to believe no one could see this was going to happen? This should have been obvious to the most casual observer.
Promises that never materialize are perfectly exemplified in the ‘experimental’ wind turbines that were placed (less than two years ago) on roof of the Michael V. DiSalle Government Center in Toledo, Ohio. They have now failed and all the expense for that fell on the backs of the taxpayers.
The promise by renewable energy advocates was that this scheme would save taxpayers thousands of dollars “each year” due to the reduction in their electricity bills. It didn’t! “The turbines ceased to spin and generate energy in March 2012. Beth Gianforcaro, state Development Services Agency (DSA) spokeswoman, reported the government agency deactivated the turbines due to maintenance and performance issues.”
Oh…yes….as always...... it gets worse. Helix Wind Corp., the manufacturer and installer of these turbines went broke and is out of business. So even if the state wanted to continue on with this scam they have no idea whether they can be fixed or who could do it. This stuff is no different than any scam by any con artist that promises untold and unearned dollars for nothing. What disturbs me the most about this particular scam is that it occurred in Ohio. We don’t usually see things so stupidly.
Let’s face it; ‘going green’ is a bad investment, otherwise the world would have already ‘gone green’ from investments by private sector investors and wouldn’t have had to be subsidized by governments all over the world. Bad green investments that end up down the rat hole are one thing, but there are other even more onerous consequences to ‘going green’. Food prices are dramatically rising all over the world as a result of ethanol subsidies and mandates. After fifty years of falling prices that trend has reversed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The so-called Arab Spring is believed to have been triggered by the rising cost of food caused by these ‘green’ mandates, and if that is the case this will only get worse worldwide.
The common theme from the green movement is that all of the things they promote; from the elimination of pesticides, promotion or organic farming, an abandonment of production of energy by traditional sources and means, the elimination of dams so that the rivers may flow free, taking over millions of acres of other people’s property in order to save some beetle, or mouse, or a flower which may be listed as an endangered species; is for humanities own good. Horsepucky! The reality is that the writings from the foundational thinkers of the green movement show they were misanthropic, blaming mankind for all sorts of calamities that had no basis in fact, much like the claims by Rachel Carson in Silent Spring. And if that is doubted intellectually, we must at the very least, acknowledge that in the real world none of their schemes generate the utopia they say they desire. In reality there are two things we can glean from history; dystopia follows the green movement like Sancho Panza followed Don Quixote de La Mancha, a mad man, and if its green it isn't gold.
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