Thursday 26 February 2009

“Green energy” is just a sophisticated make-work program

“Will a green energy industry be an engine of economic growth?” asks Keith Lockitch from the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.

   Many want us to think so, including our new President. Apparently a booming green economy with millions of new jobs is just around the corner. All we need is the right mix of government “incentives.”
    These include a huge (de facto) tax on carbon emissions imposed through a cap-and-trade regulatory scheme, as well as huge government subsidies for “renewable,” carbon-free sources. The hope is that these government sticks and carrots will turn today’s pitiful “green energy” industry, which produces an insignificant fraction of American energy, into a source of abundant, affordable energy that can replace today’s fossil-fuel-dominated industry.
   

“This view is a fantasy,” says Lockitch, “one that could devastate America’s economy” – and our own.  The reality, as he says is that “green energy” – or renewable energy as our fashionable friends call it here -- is at best a sophisticated make-work program.

Read The Green Energy Fantasy.

1 comment:

StephenR said...

These include a huge (de facto) tax on carbon emissions...

Did they mention how big the cap was going to be?