{"id":347155,"date":"2024-10-17T08:12:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T06:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=347155"},"modified":"2024-10-17T08:12:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T06:12:46","slug":"green-energy-its-just-a-bribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=347155","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGreen\u201d Energy: It\u2019s Just a Bribe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
xr:d:DAFauZWVF4U:800,j:7746587625690953688,t:23071207<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Bradley Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201c\u2019I\u2019m a businessman. I\u2019ll take the [government green] money, that\u2019s all I care about\u2026 I will move heaven and earth to get projects done over here\u2019.\u201d \u2013 James Quigley, quoted in Politico <\/em>\u2018s \u201cPower Switch\u201d (below)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-19th century, Claude-Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Bastiat<\/a>, a political economist, wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Government is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else. Every one is, more or less, for profiting by the labors of others. No one would dare to express such a sentiment; he even hides it from himself.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Frenchman added:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Correct. Government does not create wealth; it redistributes it (after a large cut). Who wins and loses? The winners are government, the lobbyists, and the rent-seekers<\/em>, with concentrated benefits to them and diffused costs for the rest of us. Plunder, Bastiat would say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reminded of this by a news item reported in Politico<\/em>\u2018s \u201cPower Switch\u201d newsletter (August 16, 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cNot all Republicans want to repeal the climate law that turns 1 today,\u201d reported<\/a> Josh Siegel. \u201cIn fact, my colleague Kelsey Tamborrino and I spoke to dozens of people from all corners of the country and discovered that many GOP officials in rural areas are welcoming the billions of dollars in clean energy incentives coming from President Joe Biden\u2019s signature legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So do you think they found Republicans that feared \u201cclimate change\u201d and welcomed \u201cgreen\u201d energy as cheaper and better? No, the interviewed were financially captured rent-seekers, enjoying a wealth transfer from taxpayers (via Biden) to their pockets. Here is the rest of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In Rogers County, Okla., Republican Commissioner Ron Burrows looks at the Inflation Reduction Act and sees jobs \u2014 1,000 of them to be exact. At least once the Italian giant Enel opens its $1 billion solar manufacturing plant there in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burrows is not alone. Other political and economic leaders in Oklahoma, including Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, are glad to receive the major investments they say they\u2019d never have attracted without the climate law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can imagine being in a small rural community and trying to get economic development to come \u2014 it\u2019s a challenge,\u201d said Rosalie Griffith, a board member of the Rural Economic Development of Inola. \u201cBut unless you develop, you\u2019re going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burrows said Enel\u2019s decision to locate in his tiny town east of Tulsa \u2014 population 1,500 \u2014 would not have happened without local buy-in. \u201cI just don\u2019t see a company making that sort of investment without some level of comfort that it\u2019s not adversarial, it\u2019s not split,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, his local member of Congress \u2014 GOP Rep. Josh Brecheen \u2014 views the Inflation Reduction Act through the prism of most national Republicans. Brecheen told me he opposes the use of \u201ctaxpayer subsidization\u201d to bolster Democrats\u2019 favored green industries and is seeking to repeal the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelsey and I found that same disconnect between state and local GOP officials in rural areas and their federal representatives across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s even a similar, but less dramatic, dynamic unfolding in upstate New York. GOP Rep. Marc Molinaro voted to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act\u2019s clean energy incentives, and that\u2019s made him a top target of Democrats in the 2024 election. His district is one of 18 that voted for Biden but are held by Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation Reduction Act money catalyzed Canadian company Zinc8 Energy Solutions\u2019 decision to locate a planned battery factory in Molinaro\u2019s purple district. The project is expected to bring up to 500 new jobs to a Hudson Valley region still suffering from the loss of its manufacturing base in the 1990s. That\u2019s exciting James Quigley, a Republican who drives a Tesla and is the supervisor for the town of Ulster, where Zinc8 plans to locate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a businessman. I\u2019ll take the money, that\u2019s all I care about,\u201d Quigley said. \u201cI will move heaven and earth to get projects done over here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Final Comment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gosh Josh, what did you really find our here? Are you proud of this? Did you and Kelsey Tamborrino ask the same parties if they liked the federal deficit and inflation? The present level of taxation? The wisdom of the few over the energy verdicts of the masses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u2018s \u201cBidenomics and the New Political-Subsidy Economy<\/a>\u201d spoke to this issue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Money for these subsidies has to come from somewhere, and that means the private economy in higher taxes and more government borrowing\u2026. The IRA [Inflation Reduction Act] is the heart of Bidenomics, which is about creating a new political-subsidy economy. Perhaps all of this will effloresce into a brilliant green future. More likely hundreds of billions in misallocated investment will reduce future productivity gains and translate into slower economic and income growth. Let\u2019s hope President Biden\u2019s subsidies don\u2019t boomerang like pandemic transfer payments, leaving all Americans poorer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What a waste, what a shame. The next President needs to issue an emergency declaration that the U.S. is out of money and cease all subsidies of the Inflation Reduction Act in order to pause wind, solar, and battery subsidies. Ratepayers and taxpayers will be thankful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So do you think they found Republicans that feared \u201cclimate change\u201d and welcomed \u201cgreen\u201d energy as cheaper and better? No, the interviewed were financially captured rent-seekers, enjoying a wealth transfer from taxpayers (via Biden) to their pockets. Here is the rest of the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":347158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818822,691830962,691818118,691818576,691818299],"class_list":{"0":"post-347155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-climate-law","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-green-energy","12":"tag-inflation-reduction-act","13":"tag-subsidies","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Renewable-Energy.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1sjh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":211402,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=211402","url_meta":{"origin":347155,"position":0},"title":"WSJ: Why Pretend Green Pork Will Stop Climate Change?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/08\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Essay by Eric Worrall h\/t M; There have been some surprisingly climate skeptic Wall Street Journal articles lately, at least in terms of hilighting the obvious flaws of big government subsidised climate \u201csolutions\u201d. 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