Really, Rep. Stearns? We can't make this here?
Well, isn't this
patriotic sounding?
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said in a Tuesday interview that the United States "can't compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines," and that the government should no longer subsidize green-energy programs.
Stearns, who had initially supported a Department of Energy program that provided low-interest loans to green-energy corporations, said he was "hugely critical" of how the program had been handled, specifically the Obama administration's approval of more than $500 million in loans to the now-bankrupt solar company Solyndra.
"I think the administration is putting taxpayers' money at risk in areas that are not creating jobs," Stearns said Monday in an interview with NPR.
He is so committed to playing politics on the Solyndra non-issue that he is actually saying that American scientists and entrepreneurs and workers just aren't as good as China's when it comes to innovation in green energy. It's pretty hard to believe that coming out of a Republican's mouth, but there you have it. America sucks.
Of course, where we have to be sinking tax-payer dollars is in subsidies to the oil and gas industry. We can certainly compete in late 19th and early 20th century technology.
1:25 PM PT: The White House responds with a blog post from Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer that sums it up.
Chairman Stearns and other members of his party in Congress believe that America cannot, or should not, try to compete for jobs in a cutting edge and rapidly growing industry. We simply disagree: the answer to this challenge is not to wave the white flag and give up on American workers. America has never declared defeat after a single setback – and we shouldn’t start now.
America’s entrepreneurs and innovators are still the very best in the world. Our workers are second to none – and we have never been afraid of a challenge. It’s time to do what we’ve always done in the face of a tough competitor: roll up our sleeves and recapture the lead.