Panel Wants More Government Spending on Clean Energy that Will Benefit GE and Other Jobs Panel Board Members. Crony Capitalism is Not an Economic Plan, says National Center for Public Policy Research.
Alan Sexton
Green Mountain Scribes
10/11/2011
Washington, D.C. – Reacting to the recommendation by President Obama’s jobs panel, chaired by GE CEO Jeff Immelt, that additional federal funds be dedicated to clean energy development, today policy experts from the National Center for Public Policy Research are calling attention to the conflicts of interest surrounding this advice.
“Immelt’s recommending more money for clean energy is a clear conflict of interest. GE has significant investments in solar panels and wind turbines and Immelt needs government backing to profit from his company’s investment in renewable energy. This is an outrageous example of crony capitalism at work,” said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project.
The interim report, “Taking Action, Building Confidence,” by the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, makes five recommendations to spur job growth. The first initiative, “Invest Aggressively and Efficiently in Cutting-Edge Infrastructure and Energy,” calls for government support to improve the country’s energy infrastructure and a new federal financing institution funded with $1 to $2 billion per year to amplify clean energy investments.
“The Solyndra scandal proves the federal government can’t successfully function as a venture capital company, yet faced with this glaring failure, Immelt doubles down on this flawed strategy. Immelt’s arrogant disregard of the public’s anger over crony capitalism and the Solyndra bankruptcy is shocking,” added Tom Borelli…
The article continues at the Green Mountain Scribes.
“Scour this report, identify all those areas in which we can act administratively without additional congressional authorization and just get it done,” President Obama said today to a “Jobs Council” meeting.
Update 2: Moment of truth: Senate blocks Obama’s jobs bill
…The bill wasn’t designed to pass. If it was, Obama wouldn’t have loaded it up with tax hikes knowing that Republicans would reject them out of hand. It was designed to draw a party-line vote resulting in a filibuster so that O could (a) blame the GOP for the next 13 months of malaise while (b) claiming that they’d rather protect the rich (the one percent!!!) from new tax burdens than help America recover. He almost got that tonight — sort of. Turns out Lieberman, Manchin, and Jim Webb all agreed to help Obama out with his talking points by voting yes on cloture even though they would have voted no on the final bill. As of a few hours ago, the final tally was so uncertain that lefty Greg Sargent feared Obama wouldn’t even get most Democrats to vote yes, but in the end he did get it. So now The One gets to say, falsely, that a majority of his party backs the plan and that they’re once again being thwarted by those darned obstructionist wingnuts…
Read the whole thing.
Or, as they say at Protein Wisdom, Obama to union audience: Screw Congress. I’ll implement my jobs plan administratively
