Face The State Staff Opinion
Gov. Bill Ritter loves his “New Energy Economy” so much that he felt compelled to mention it no less than 10 times during his State of the State address last week.
He also took the opportunity to plug green legislation that furthers his agenda for the "New Energy Economy," but on closer examination is actually harmful to mainstream Colorado.
In case you weren’t there, here’s a taste:
“The New Energy Economy is a place where we must keep creating new jobs, new innovations and new opportunities. This session, we also must continue bringing the New Energy Economy home for ordinary Coloradans.
"We'll be introducing legislation with Rep. [Mike] Merrifield and Sen. [Morgan] Carroll requiring that all new single-family homes come with a "solar-ready" option. Today, home buyers already have choices when it comes to counter tops, paint colors and flooring. People should have similar options when it comes to sustainability.
"I'm equally excited about another of Sen. Carroll's proposals, the Renewable Energy Financing Act, which will facilitate financing for residential and business clean-energy projects.”
The “solar-ready” legislation was featured in Monday’s Denver Post with reporter John Ingold touching on the debate over “how far government should go to aid what is ultimately a private industry.”
As steadfast but reasonable free market types, we frequently oppose government intervention in the private sector, but as of late liberals are convinced the free-market doesn't work. Democrats are using the current financial crisis to sell the public on the need for more rules and regulations. But it was government mandates on access to affordable mortgages and housing that fueled the current economic mess and the implosion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
We are most concerned with Carroll's Renewable Energy Financing Act. The proposal would make renewable energy options, such as solar or wind power, more accessible by "facilitating financing" through third party lease agreements, bank loans, credit unions and mortgage lenders. Essentially, it would make it easier for people to borrow money in order to pay for renewable energy options at home.
The policy sounds eerily like the disastrous concept of government sponsored "affordable" mortgages.
The problem with “affordable mortgages,” is that they don’t exist in reality. People can either afford to buy a house or they can’t. They can either afford to pay their mortgage or they can’t. This principle holds true for renewable energy. It is either affordable or it isn’t. Government intervention doesn't make it so.
Last week, Carroll plugged the legislation on a liberal blog, writing, “Colorado has an abundance of solar and wind energy, yet it is EXPENSIVE! Going green shouldn't just be for the wealthy, which is why affordable financing for mainstream Colorado is so critical.”
In mainstream Colorado, people care more about paying their bills than going green, and what is affordable today is oil and natural gas. Efforts to “facilitate financing," liberal-speak for helping people accrue even more debt, is a dangerous proposition that could lead more government debt bailouts.
To her credit, Carroll has realized renewable energy is not an affordable for option for most Coloradans, but the solution should not be to borrow more money for something we can't afford in the first place.
DEMS WILL COST YOU?
On January 15th, 2009 ameade says:
Tell me again how liberals are responsible when it was reasonable free market types that led Bush to sign the American Dream Down payment Initiative (ADDI)into law in Dec. 2003. It authorized some $800 million in home-buyer assistance between 2004 and 2007 - small change compared with bailing out the No-Money-Down madness it accompanied, with home builders and their finance divisions literally giving away homes on 100% credit.
Bush also set up a single family affordable housing tax credit to the tune of $2.4 billion. Bush said, "the fact is,that the rules are too complex. People get discouraged by the fine print on the contracts. They take a look and say, well, I'm not so sure I want to sign this. There's too many words.There's too many pitfalls..."
George W.Bush launched his first National Home Ownership Month in June 2002. He blamed the small print lurking at the bottom of home-loan and sale contracts - all those boring warnings about interest-rate risk, late payments, foreclosure orders, repossession, buyer beware and so on for locking American families out of home ownership.
In other words, over-priced housing needed more people to get more money so they could start buying more houses. Home prices in the most densely-populated US cities promptly doubled between 2002 and mid-2006.
Republicans controlled Congress during this whole time (with an iron fist -The Hammer after all). Yet you continue to blame liberals for the resulting economic melt-down. Please!
Investing in clean energy will bring jobs, investment and energy independence to our country. These ideas are widely supported and seen as creating the industries of the 21st century. Dems want private investment in these, like the ones that have kept the renewable energy industry doubling year after year. We need conservatives to get on board and stop the partisan side swiping. Let's work together and make the changes we need for our country.
AMEADE