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GreenJobsGate
Howard Richman, 3/11/2010

The Obama administration has rejected the ideas we favor which would promote all American products indiscriminately. They prefer an industrial policy in which they get to choose the winners and losers. They have chosen the wind industry to be their winners and the industries that use energy to be their losers.

Christopher Horner had a commentary at Pajama's Media on March 9 on some shady practices within the relationship between the Obama administration and the American Wind Energy Association, a lobbying group. Here is how he begins:

Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Obama Department of Energy is using the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) — the lobbying arm of “Big Wind” in the U.S. — to coordinate political responses with two strongly ideological activist groups: the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and the George Soros funded Center for American Progress (CAP).

The entire commentary is worth reading. The details are still coming out. The close collusion between the Obama administration and the AWEA could explain:

1. Why the Obama administration is subsidizing expansion of American windmill turbine production with targeted tax breaks.
2. Why the Obama administration makes an issue about China's rules that exclude American windmill parts from Chinese windmills.
3. Why the Obama administration still thinks it can pass cap-and-trade.

Scandals like GreenJobsGate are inevitable whenever the government chooses which industries will be the winners.