It was interesting while it lasted. But it looks like the green revolution has entered the long slide into What was all that about?
In January the Spanish government removed absurdly lavish subsidies for its renewable energy industry and the renewable energy industry all but imploded. You could say it was never a renewable energy industry at all. It was a government subsidy industry where in exchange for creating conscience-soothing but otherwise inefficient windmills and solar panels the government gave the makers piles of cash consumers never would.
They destroyed the Spanish market overnight with the moratorium (on subsidies) European Wind Energy Association CEO Christian Kjaer told Bloomberg News.
The reason the Spanish example is so important is that it demonstrates how the whole green energy revolution was really an ideologically driven green boondoggle from the start.
At the beginning of his administration President Obama insisted that if we didnt follow their lead we would surrender the hugely profitable renewable energy sector to those sagacious Spaniards. In 2009 researchers at King Juan Carlos University found that Spain had destroyed 2.2 jobs in other industries for every green job it created. It also calculated that the Spanish government has spent more than half a million euros for each green job created since 2000 while wind industry jobs cost more than 1 million euros apiece.
When asked about the study then-White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded that he hadnt read it but It seems weird that were importing wind turbine parts from Spain in order to build -- to meet renewable energy demand here if that were even remotely the case.
Lets cut Gibbs & Co. some slack. These were the days before the White House learned there were no shovel-ready jobs before they discovered that their investments in companies like Solyndra were little better than shoveling taxpayer dollars into an industrial mulcher. So it shouldnt surprise anyone that Gibbs would find it weird that our own domestic phylum of subsidy-seeking sucker fish might want to buy Spains artificially cheap products in a scheme to feed off domestic subsidies here at home.
The evidence that this administration put cronyism and ideology ahead of reality is all around us. Since 2009 reports the Wall Street Journal the Obama administration has awarded more than $1 billion to American companies to make advanced batteries for electric vehicles. Halfway to a six-year goal of producing one million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles auto makers are barely at 50000 cars. Well that leaves just 950000 cars to go.
Obama believed he was smart enough to start whole new industries simply by sluicing taxpayer dollars into the right maws. Any suggestion that the transition to inefficient energy sources might come at a cost to taxpayers or economic growth was derided as a false choice.
It seems like Obama at least understands the tough choices he faces. In 2009 the presidents Earth Day message was stridently dedicated to climate change. In 2012 it didnt even mention the word climate. The administration wants everyone to believe it supports fracking and natural gas development. When Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he prefers high gasoline prices the administration all but defenestrated the guy. Much to the chagrin of the green lobby Obama will not be attending this years Earth Summit. Heck the current picture on the White Houses energy and environment page even shows Obama happily walking past a stack of oil pipes. Subtle.
Yes Obama threw a bone to the greens on the Keystone pipeline but he more quietly opened up the Alaskan Arctic to new oil development granting Shell permits to drill offshore.
We never would have expected a Democratic president -- let alone one seeking to be transformative -- to open up the Arctic Ocean for drilling Michael Brune executive director of the Sierra Club told The New York Times.
Now I have no doubt that Obamas course correction is entirely political. For instance if he hadnt approved the Arctic drilling Shell almost surely would have sued the administration for the billions its spent developing its Arctic leases. Thats not the kind of lawsuit Obama would want in an election year.
But saying Obama has caved to political reality doesnt change the fact that political reality is largely a function of economic reality. In Europe and America alike voters increasingly recognize that the benefits of the green revolution arent worth the costs particularly when the revolutionaries dont have a clue what theyre doing. The only question for voters is whether Obama has really learned his lesson or whether he plans on reverting to type if re-elected.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Onlineand the author of the forthcoming book The Tyranny of Clichs. You can reach him via Twitter @JonahNRO.
It was interesting while it lasted. But it looks like the green revolution has entered the long slide into What was all that about?
In January the Spanish government removed absurdly lavish subsidies for its renewable energy industry and the renewable energy industry all but imploded. You could say it was never a renewable energy industry at all. It was a government subsidy industry where in exchange for creating conscience-soothing but otherwise inefficient windmills and solar panels the government gave the makers piles of cash consumers never would.
They destroyed the Spanish market overnight with the moratorium (on subsidies) European Wind Energy Association CEO Christian Kjaer told Bloomberg News.
The reason the Spanish example is so important is that it demonstrates how the whole green energy revolution was really an ideologically driven green boondoggle from the start.
At the beginning of his administration President Obama insisted that if we didnt follow their lead we would surrender the hugely profitable renewable energy sector to those sagacious Spaniards. In 2009 researchers at King Juan Carlos University found that Spain had destroyed 2.2 jobs in other industries for every green job it created. It also calculated that the Spanish government has spent more than half a million euros for each green job created since 2000 while wind industry jobs cost more than 1 million euros apiece.
When asked about the study then-White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded that he hadnt read it but It seems weird that were importing wind turbine parts from Spain in order to build -- to meet renewable energy demand here if that were even remotely the case.
Lets cut Gibbs & Co. some slack. These were the days before the White House learned there were no shovel-ready jobs before they discovered that their investments in companies like Solyndra were little better than shoveling taxpayer dollars into an industrial mulcher. So it shouldnt surprise anyone that Gibbs would find it weird that our own domestic phylum of subsidy-seeking sucker fish might want to buy Spains artificially cheap products in a scheme to feed off domestic subsidies here at home.
The evidence that this administration put cronyism and ideology ahead of reality is all around us. Since 2009 reports the Wall Street Journal the Obama administration has awarded more than $1 billion to American companies to make advanced batteries for electric vehicles. Halfway to a six-year goal of producing one million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles auto makers are barely at 50000 cars. Well that leaves just 950000 cars to go.
Obama believed he was smart enough to start whole new industries simply by sluicing taxpayer dollars into the right maws. Any suggestion that the transition to inefficient energy sources might come at a cost to taxpayers or economic growth was derided as a false choice.
It seems like Obama at least understands the tough choices he faces. In 2009 the presidents Earth Day message was stridently dedicated to climate change. In 2012 it didnt even mention the word climate. The administration wants everyone to believe it supports fracking and natural gas development. When Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he prefers high gasoline prices the administration all but defenestrated the guy. Much to the chagrin of the green lobby Obama will not be attending this years Earth Summit. Heck the current picture on the White Houses energy and environment page even shows Obama happily walking past a stack of oil pipes. Subtle.
Yes Obama threw a bone to the greens on the Keystone pipeline but he more quietly opened up the Alaskan Arctic to new oil development granting Shell permits to drill offshore.
We never would have expected a Democratic president -- let alone one seeking to be transformative -- to open up the Arctic Ocean for drilling Michael Brune executive director of the Sierra Club told The New York Times.
Now I have no doubt that Obamas course correction is entirely political. For instance if he hadnt approved the Arctic drilling Shell almost surely would have sued the administration for the billions its spent developing its Arctic leases. Thats not the kind of lawsuit Obama would want in an election year.
But saying Obama has caved to political reality doesnt change the fact that political reality is largely a function of economic reality. In Europe and America alike voters increasingly recognize that the benefits of the green revolution arent worth the costs particularly when the revolutionaries dont have a clue what theyre doing. The only question for voters is whether Obama has really learned his lesson or whether he plans on reverting to type if re-elected.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Onlineand the author of the forthcoming book The Tyranny of Clichs. You can reach him via Twitter @JonahNRO.
