Something Else Obama 'Didn't Know'

Besides not knowing how bad the economy really was in 2008 - a time when he told us he was the man who was on top of the situation and could fix it - had he been more aware of the world around him when he took office, he would not have wasted billions of our dollars on this pipe dream:

Germany’s Sunshine Daydream
Bjørn Lomborg, Project Syndicate

Copenhagen – One of the world’s biggest green-energy public-policy experiments is coming to a bitter end in Germany, with important lessons for policymakers elsewhere.

Germany once prided itself on being the “photovoltaic world champion”, doling out generous subsidies – totaling more than $130 billion, according to research from Germany’s Ruhr University – to citizens to invest in solar energy. But now the German government is vowing to cut the subsidies sooner than planned, and to phase out support over the next five years. What went wrong?

There is a fundamental problem with subsidizing inefficient green technology: it is affordable only if it is done in tiny, tokenistic amounts. Using the government’s generous subsidies, Germans installed 7.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic (PV) capacity last year, more than double what the government had deemed “acceptable.” It is estimated that this increase alone will lead to a $260 hike in the average consumer’s annual power bill.

According to Der Spiegel, even members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s staff are now describing the policy as a massive money pit. [link]

A lesson that Barack Obama - to this day - hasn't learned.

While this energy-starved nation clamors for real solutions to the growing problem with electricity and fuel costs - and for pipelines to ease the crisis - Obama continues to sink our precious tax dollars into (his friends' ...) "green" technologies that will never amount to anything.

Can we expect an apology ... some decade in the future long after he's been sent to the retirement home?

Such a waste. Such a lost opportunity.