There are times when congress makes the hair stand up on the back of my head. This action is one of them.
According to the Washington Times, taxpayers are on the hook for more than $2.2 billion in expected costs from the federal government’s energy loan guarantee programs, according to a new audit Monday that suggests the controversial projects may not pay for themselves, as officials had promised. (Heard that before?)
Nearly $1 billion in loans have already defaulted under the Energy Department program, which included the infamous Solyndra stimulus project and dozens of other green technology programs the Obama administration has approved, totaling nearly about $30 billion in taxpayer backing, the Government Accountability Office reported in its audit.
The hefty $2.2 billion price tag is actually an improvement over initial estimates, which found the government was poised to face $4 billion in losses from the loan guarantees. But as the projects have come to fruition, they’ve performed better, leaving taxpayers with a shrinking — though still sizable — liability. And the addition of the rivers and streams the AP indicated as use takes an average of 18 months to license a new natural gas plant, it can take up to 10 years or longer to license a new dam or relicense an existing dam, she and other Republicans said. So the additional expense is going to raise the bill to the taxpayers considerably.
rwood
How many snail darters will die because of these dams?!!!!!
I didn’t see where the bill would have the government guaranteeing loans for the new generators.