Say What You Mean

I imagine the Obama administration and supporters of renewable energy wish the industry’s recent nightmare was more like one of the subpar horror movies I watched over Halloween weekend: amusingly terrifying but ultimately harmless. The financial collapse of the federally supported solar energy company Solyndra, however, is no Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

It is important for progressives to respond appropriately to this incident. They should not be upset that a renewable energy company failed. In any industry, some companies succeed and others do not. Progressives should not even be upset that the federal government supported a failed project. Working to transition to an energy-independent future is a worthy investment of taxpayer dollars even if it entails some risks along the way. The Solyndra incident is not a cause for waffling and backpedaling.

That being said, progressives should be disappointed by the Obama administration’s apparent mismanagement of Solyndra’s financial troubles. This egregious mistake has given Republicans ammunition in their rhetorical war against government involvement in the energy sector. Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney flexed his conservative muscles by claiming that government involvement in the renewable energy sector invites cronyism and corruption. Speaker of the House John Boehner joined in on the chorus, chastising the Obama administration’s choice of “winners and losers” in the energy economy. Republicans have jumped at the opportunity to denounce President Obama as foolish and renewable energy as fallible.

Suspend disbelief for a second. Pretend that the BP oil spill was a freak occurrence in an otherwise perfectly self-regulating industry (ignore the massive spills of Exxon-Valdez, the Niger Delta, and the Amazonian rain forest, of course). Pretend that the energy sector is actually a fair playing field and that coal and oil companies do not influence political outcomes or receive an absurd amount of government support. Ignore the vital importance of energy to our economy and national security. In this fantasy world, the Republican assertion that government should keep its inefficient, wasteful, and job killing hands out of the energy industry might actually make some sense.

But this is not the world we live in, and Republicans know it.

Rather than revealing the failures of the renewable energy industry, the Solyndra scandal has highlighted Republican duplicity in energy policy. He may distance himself from clean energy now, but the famously fickle Mitt Romney started the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund in 2003, which he touted as a source of new jobs in the renewable energy industry in his state. For his part, Boehner has urged the administration to give a nuclear-fuel plant in Ohio a $2 billion loan guarantee, claiming that to do otherwise would be a betrayal to the state’s citizens. Other Solyndra-bashing Republicans have called for federal subsidies for clean coal and carbon storage projects in their states.

While most Republicans wouldn’t dare admit it, their actions demonstrate their unwavering belief in government’s role in the energy sector (especially when it benefits their districts).  So rather than simply defend the role of government, progressive leadership should use the Republican response to Solyndra as a chance to highlight their hypocrisy.

To my Republican friends, I have one simple question. Is honesty in your public discourse about the energy policies you support asking for too much?

Let’s do better.