Will Boehner's (nuclear) Pork Project Be the Next Solyndra?

[kristopher]

Will Boehner's (nuclear) Pork Project Be the Next Solyndra?

Fox Business last month sat House Speaker John Boehner down for his take on the collapse of Solyndra, the California solar panel maker that squandered a $535-million federal loan guarantee. When asked if the government should be "gambling taxpayer money on green energy companies," the Ohio Republican replied that "new energy sources are going to have to stand on their own" and the "federal government should not ... be in the business of picking winners and losers."

New energy sources should "stand on their own"? Boehner apparently doesn't feel the same way about "old" energy sources--namely oil and gas, coal, and nuclear--which have been sucking on the federal teat for more than 50 years. And as far as picking winners and losers, he takes a very different tack when it comes to bringing home the bacon. Boehner has been pushing a $2-billion loan guarantee for a southwestern Ohio uranium enrichment plant that could wind up being a much worse bet than Solyndra--nearly four times worse.

Let's look at his "stand on their own" comment first. While Boehner is quick to condemn government support for new energy sources, he is just as quick to protect old energy subsidies. Earlier this year, for example, Boehner voted against two bills that would have cut tens of billions of oil subsidies, even when the industry is enjoying record-breaking profits. He did have a moment of clarity in April when he told ABC News that oil companies "ought to be paying their fair share," but the next day, after the White House applauded him, a Boehner staffer essentially retracted the remark.

A 2009 report by the Environmental Law Institute provides a snapshot of just how lopsided federal energy subsidies were during the last decade. Between 2002 and 2008, ELI estimated that fossil fuels received $72 billion in tax breaks, tax credits and other subsidies, with most going to oil and then to natural gas. Over that same time period, "new" renewable energy sources--wind, solar, biofuels and biomass, hydropower and geothermal--received $29 billion. However, more than half of that--$16.8 billion--went to corn-based ethanol. Only $12.2 billion--less than 20 percent of what fossil fuels received--went to wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, and non-corn-based biofuels and biomass. ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elliott-negin/will-boehners-pork-projec_b_1020603.html

For a more historical perspective,