Without much fanfare, the Department of Energy (DOE) recently updated the list of loan guarantee projects on
its website. Unlike in 2008, when Barack Obama pledged to create 5
million jobs over 10 years by directing taxpayer funds toward renewable
energy projects, there were no press conferences or stump speeches. But
the data are nonetheless revealing: for the over $26 billion spent since
2009, DOE Section 1703 and 1705 loan guarantees have created only 2,298
permanent jobs for a cost of over $11.45 million per job.
As the astronomical cost of the DOE’s loan guarantee program indicates,
subsidizing renewable energy is not a good deal for taxpayers. But loan
guarantees are just one of the ways the federal government bankrolls
risky green energy projects. Energy-related tax preferences cost
taxpayers about $13.5 billion in FY 2012, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. But solar and wind power, for which the majority of the tax preferences for renewable energy were directed, produced only 3.6 percent
of the nation’s generation in 2012. In addition, the Treasury
Department’s 1603 grant program, which offers cash payments to renewable
energy companies, cost taxpayers $5.8 billion in
2012. Many states also subsidize green energy through tax preferences
as well as requiring renewable electricity mandates that require a
specified amount of electricity to be generated from qualified renewable
sources like wind and solar.
READ MORE: http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2013/05/08/does-11-million-jobs/
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