Obama believes a "green economy" should be a principal goal of his economic and environmental policy. He claims he will produce high quality jobs to put Americans back to work with his plans to subsidize alternative energy generation, while driving the coal industry into bankruptcy. He also claims that this is a substantial path toward energy independence. Eight times he has said that the model for his alternative energy economy is Spain. So, let us see what the Spanish have concluded from their experiment in a green economy based on subsidized alternative energy such as solar and wind power.
The Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been behind the Spanish "green economy." From 2004 to 2010, the subsidies for alternative power were increased by a multiple of 5. In 2009, the subsidies were doubled compared to 2008. These 2009 subsidies were about equal to the entire government budget for all research, development, and technological innovation for Spain. Electricity from solar plants is 12 times more expensive than that from fossil fuel combustion. The cost of electricity generated in Spain from traditional fossil fuel plants has been dropping, but the cost of the alternative fuels has been going up so fast that consumer bills have gone up, rather than down. You see, most of the subsidy costs are charged to the consumer. The government says that the alternative energy industry will receive 126 billion euros in the next 25 years.
The Spanish newspaper La Gaceta on 21 May 2010 reported on the developing consensus that Spain's alternative energy, "green economy" has failed miserably. Gabriel Calzada and other authors from the Juan de Mariana Institute produced a study that the Spanish 'green economy" had failed. The Socialist government bitterly denounced the study. The Spanish Embassy in the U.S. got the Democrat Congress to denounce the Calzada study in an act of Congress!
But now, the Minister of Industry, Miguel Sebastian, is worrying about the huge debt which is the result of the so-called investment in "clean energy." Some in the Spanish cabinet believe the debt is worsening and delaying the recession for Spain. An internal document of the Spanish cabinet has been leaked and its conclusions are even more pessimistic than the demonized Calzada study's. The government now admits that every 'green job" created cost Spain more than 2.2 traditional jobs, in agreement with the Calzada report. This is not good in a country with 20%, and still rising, unemployment. The internal cabinet report backs every claim made in the Calzada study about the failure of the "green economy" experiment.
Obama, just last week, recommended that Zapatero change his strategy because it was hurting the Spanish economy and threatening the stability of the entire European Union, which is likely, with help from the U.S., to be asked to bail Spain out of its financial crisis. One has to conclude that Obama knows the "green economy" model does not work. Yet, this is the essential model of the newest attempt to create such an economy in the U.S., the Kerry - Lieberman version of carbon cap and tax which was just introduced earlier this week. Obama is all for that. This means he is knowingly putting his and the Democrats quest for power over the economy ahead of American prosperity. He is knowingly seeking to create "green jobs" at a cost of more than 2.2 traditional jobs, he is knowingly seeking to add hugely to the national debt, and he is knowingly acting to greatly increase the cost of energy use in the U.S.
Is this guy Satan or what?
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