By Judd Gregg, former New Hampshire governor, U.S. Senator | The Hill
Just three years ago, Republican members of the Senate split with President Obama and his party over federal energy policy. On the left, Democrats pushed for a move to solar and wind power, while right-wing lawmakers backed a commitment to adding 100 nuclear power plants over the next 30 years.
But with the discovery of massive amounts of natural gas, both strategies to make America energy independent have been left in the dust — or more appropriately, in the shale.
We have unfortunately seen what happens when energy policy is written in Washington for the purpose of politics.
Solyndra was not only a massive waste of taxpayers’ dollars, it is a poster child for the misdirection that occurs when the governing class tries to direct industrial policy.
How many times did we hear during the 2008 and 2010 elections that “green jobs” would revive our economy and pull us from the depths of the recession? You can pretty much count on the collective fingers of the Democrats who ran for Congress on this platform the number of jobs created by their “green initiatives.” And most of those came at an extraordinarily high cost to other working Americans whose taxes subsidized those jobs.
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, Co-Chair of Rose Law Group’s Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
