A “Green Bank” to put us Further in the Red

I am increasingly convinced that the Democrats who control Congress have gone completely insane. I am provided with evidence of this almost every day.

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Consider the press release I received on Tuesday, March 24, the day of President Obama’s press conference. It was from the Office of the Assistant to the Speaker, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). “Van Hollen Introduces the Green Bank Act of 2009” was the title. The subtitle was “Bank will provide range of financing support to clean energy and energy efficiency projects in the United States.” I can think of a whole range of projects to enhance and expand energy in the United States. The grid that transports and distributes electricity is in great need of expansion and upgrade. People, however, have a lot of difficulty understanding that electricity is not magic. In my home state of New Jersey eight towns in two counties are fighting the building of a much-needed high-voltage line. In the White House, President Obama keeps saying bad things about coal, the energy source of just over 50% of all the electricity Americans use. On television moronic commercials portray coal as “dirty” instead of invaluable. Congressman Van Hollen, however, asserts that “Energy independence is central to our security, our economy and our environment. By creating the Green Bank, we will accelerate the development, deployment, and production of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies across the country.” To do this the Green Bank would be “an independent, tax-exempt, wholly owned corporation of the United States” with “an initial capitalization of $10 billion through the issuance of Green Bonds by the Department of the Treasury.” The upper limit would be $50 billion in Green Bonds outstanding at one time. A number of things seem to have escaped Cong. Van Hollen’s notice. The nation is in a deep financial funk as the result of having borrowed ourselves into an untenable position that threatens to devalue the U.S. dollar to a point where the purchase of anything these days is increasing. We shouldn’t be creating new government entities to BORROW MORE money. Beyond that, Cong. Van Hollen does not seem aware of the way the U.S. Congress has, since the late 1970s, destroyed the nation’s formerly thriving oil industry by refusing to let it drill anywhere, making the process of building a new refinery so onerous and costly that not one has been built in decades, and by requiring that virtually the entire annual crop of corn be converted into ethanol. This last mandate ensures less mileage per gallon of gasoline and an increase in auto emissions of CO2. It also guarantees worldwide food riots. Energy efficiency sounds good, but what we need is more energy sources and the Green Bank will be making big loans exclusively to wind and solar energy projects that could not get funding elsewhere because they are so impractical and inefficient no sensible banker or venture capitalist would loan them any money. Without government subsidies and mandates, they would not exist. Together, wind and solar provide a minuscule 1% of the electricity we use. The other initial sponsors of this idiotic Green Bank are Cong. David Loebsack (D-IA), Cong. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), Cong. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Cong. Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam). This is not an “investment” in anything more than an increase in the financial burden we now must bear and the future burden being proposed in an insane budget that will triple the national debt. As the saying goes, “When you’re in a hole, stop digging!”

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