If you watched the debate last night, in addition to Willard “Mitt” Romney’s pathological lying, deception, Etch-a-Sketch’ing, bullying, etc., you probably noticed his dissing of anything “green” (environmental “green,” that is; money “green” is all important in Romney’s world). For instance, Romney falsely claimed that green energy receives far more taxpayer support than fossil fuels have over the years. In reality, of course, while there’s no definitive count on taxpayer-funded corporate welfare to oil, coal, and natural gas, the amount going to those industries over the years has far exceeded that going to clean energy. Not even close.
So what was Romney talking about when he told Obama, “in one year, you provided $90 billion in breaks to the green energy world?” Hard to say. According to a study by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in fact, all “renewables” received only $14.7 billion in federal support in 2010, up from $5.1 billion in 2007. So, one could argue that the Obama “stimulus” added a bit over $9 billion in one-time support for clean energy in 2010. That’s not chump change, but it’s not even close to the $90 billion “in one year” figure Romney threw out last night (unless, perhaps, he was counting money spent over several years in a variety of areas, including home weatherization and other energy-related areas, not just what most people think of as “green energy” – wind, solar, geothermal, etc.). Who knows.
Also, as my analysis here showed, “non-‘stimulus’ (alternately, we can call them ‘business as usual’) subsidies for wind, solar and geothermal in 2010 were down about $140 million from 2007.” Of course, Willard doesn’t mention this, but again, who knows what that guy’s talking about, as most every word that comes out of his mouth is a lie or distortion. I know that actual facts are painful for pathological liars like Romney and Ryan, but I wanted to put them out there for the rest of us.
Anyway, the gist of Willard’s comments last night was to diss “green energy” and “green jobs.” At one point, Romney even claimed – completely, wildly wrong!!! – that “about half of {green energy companies}, of the ones have been invested in, they’ve gone out of business.” In fact, there was at most “a 10 percent failure rate representing roughly 2 percent of budgeted funds for the program – a big difference from the 50 percent failure rate that Romney claimed.” Whatever, details details (and can’t expect the corporate media to do its job and call them on this crap).
Meanwhile, here in Virginia, I find it amusing that Bill Bolling’s new 2013 campaign website brags about the McDonnell/Bolling administration’s (self-proclaimed) support for “Green Energy” and “Green JOBZ.” According to Bolling, “The [McDonnell-Bolling] administration has embraced an aggressive program to advance renewable energy programs, such as wind energy, solar energy and biofuels research and development.” It has also “implemented ‘Green JOBZ’ tax free zones to incentivize the development of renewable energy technologies in Virginia,” and ALSO required all new state buildings “to incorporate LEED energy standards, and all state agencies…to reduce energy consumption by entering into Energy Savings Performance Contracts.”
Sounds good, right? Well, not according to the presidential nominee of McDonnell’s and Bolling’s own party, who goes around mocking “green energy” and “green jobs” (as an aside, I’d point out that when Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he touted clean energy, helped create a “cap and trade” program for greenhouse gas emissions, said coal plants “kill people,” said we’d be better off with “European gas prices,” etc.). I wonder if McDonnell and Bolling will set Willard straight on this one, or if they’ll just suck it up and take one for the team, so to speak?
P.S. As for the politics of all this, check out the new poll showing overwhelmingly positive views of solar and wind power among U.S. voters, in stark contrast to the not-so-hot views of coal and oil held by those same voters.
P.P.S. Also worth noting is that Bob McDonell has been a major Romney surrogate who was reportedly on Romney’s short list for VP, while Bolling is state chair for Romney in Virginia.
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