House Speaker John Boehner attacked the Obama administration for financing failed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, saying government shouldn't pick winners and losers. That hasn't stopped him from demanding that the U.S. make a winner of a nuclear-fuel plant in Ohio, his home state.Boehner is backing a $2 billion Energy Department loan guarantee sought by USEC Inc. (USU) for its American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, aimed at enriching uranium for commercial nuclear reactors.
"When it comes to emerging energy technologies, the Republicans don't want to pick winners and losers -- unless it's nuclear power," Ellen Vancko, nuclear energy and climate-change project manager in the Washington office of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in an interview.
So out of one side of his mouth John Boehner says this:
In an interview with Fox Business Network on Sept. 19, Boehner said that "for the federal government to be out there picking one company over another, one type of energy source over another. I think is wrong."
And out of the other he says this:
"Hundreds of Southern Ohio workers stand to lose their jobs if the Obama administration reneges on the president's promise to support an energy project in the small town of Piketon, Ohio," Boehner wrote. "I urge the administration to not betray the citizens of Ohio."
I actually haven't looked into the specifics of the loan, so I've got no idea whether it's a good idea or a bad one, but I do know that if I were a Republican operative, I'd point out that as long as John Boehner's definition of "hundreds" is less than one thousand, he's asking for at least $2 million for each job.
Meanwhile, he continues to double down on Solyndra scandalmongering and refuses to hold a vote on any of the major provisions in President Obama's jobs bill, even the one that would extend the payroll tax holiday another year. With "leadership" like Boehner's, it's no wonder that Congress has a 9 percent job approval.
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