The so-called “Green New Deal” has been sold to the American public as a noble quest to save the planet through a rapid transition to renewable energy. At the heart of this agenda lies the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), which has become a taxpayer-funded machine pumping billions into wind, solar, and other intermittent energy projects. Far from delivering a cleaner, more reliable energy future, the LPO’s efforts distort energy markets, destabilize the electrical grid, and burden taxpayers with the fallout of speculative ventures that prioritize ideology over practicality. As rural communities push back against sprawling wind turbines and solar farms, and with the historical shadow of failures like Solyndra looming large, it’s time to expose the “Green New Scam” for what it is: a costly boondoggle driven by financial motives, not environmental salvation.
A History of Waste: The Solyndra Scandal
To understand the LPO’s current missteps, we must revisit the Solyndra scandal, a cautionary tale of green energy hubris. In 2009, Solyndra, a California-based solar panel manufacturer, received a $535 million loan guarantee from the DOE under the Obama administration’s stimulus package. Touted as a cornerstone of the clean energy revolution, Solyndra promised innovative technology and thousands of jobs. Instead, it filed for bankruptcy in 2011, leaving taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions. Investigations revealed that Solyndra misled the DOE with inflated financial projections and faced political pressure to secure the loan despite red flags about its viability.
The Solyndra debacle wasn’t an isolated incident. Other DOE-backed ventures, like Abound Solar and Fisker Automotive, also defaulted, contributing to over $2.2 billion in expected taxpayer losses from the loan program by 2015. These failures exposed a pattern: risky bets on unproven technologies, often driven by political agendas and cronyism, rather than sound economics. Yet, the LPO continues to double down on similar schemes, with a 2024 portfolio boasting $385 billion in loan authority for projects that echo the same flaws.
Distorting Markets and Destabilizing the Grid
The LPO’s current focus on wind and solar projects, backed by massive subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act, is wreaking havoc on energy markets. These intermittent sources—reliant on weather and time of day—require costly infrastructure to offset their unreliability, such as battery storage and backup generation. As ZeroHedge notes, “Rather than strengthening a reliable grid, such investments introduce arbitrary costs to accommodate unreliable generation.” This distorts market dynamics, as subsidized renewables undercut traditional baseload sources like coal, natural gas, and nuclear, forcing premature plant closures and driving up electricity prices.
The impact is stark in states like Pennsylvania, a natural gas powerhouse with electricity prices above the national average due to renewable mandates and federal subsidies. Grid operators struggle to balance affordability and reliability when intermittent sources flood the market, often requiring taxpayer-funded bailouts to keep nuclear plants online. The result is a less stable grid, with rolling blackouts becoming a reality in some regions, as seen in California’s 2023 energy shortages.
Rural America Says No
In rural communities, the push for wind turbines and solar panels is meeting fierce resistance. Farmers and landowners, from Kansas to New York, see their landscapes transformed into industrial energy zones, with towering turbines and sprawling solar arrays disrupting ecosystems and property values. Studies estimate that wind farms can kill hundreds of thousands of birds annually, while solar projects require vast land tracts, often rendering them unusable for agriculture. Residents argue that reliable energy sources—like natural gas and nuclear—already meet their needs without turning their backyards into green energy factories.
The environmental impact of these projects is far from “clean.” The lifecycle of wind turbines and solar panels involves mining rare earth minerals, often in environmentally destructive conditions in developing nations. Manufacturing processes release toxins, and decommissioned equipment creates mountains of unrecyclable waste. As Kristen Walker of the American Consumer Institute writes, “Hidden behind the solar panels, wind turbines, and EV batteries are some dirty secrets that get swept under the rug.” The net-zero premise underpinning the LPO’s investments fosters degrowth, locking out innovation and prioritizing ideology over practicality.
The Profit Motive Behind the Green Facade
While the Green New Deal is cloaked in environmental rhetoric, the driving force is often financial gain. The LPO’s loans and guarantees flow to politically connected firms and industries that thrive on subsidies, not market demand. ZeroHedge describes the LPO as “a central gear in the ‘green new scam’ machinery: a system built on subsidies and climate ideology, not competition or energy realism.” The Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credits, such as the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC), allow green energy projects to claim up to 60% of construction costs, ensuring profits for developers regardless of project viability.
Historical parallels abound. Solyndra’s investors, including Obama fundraiser George Kaiser, lobbied aggressively for its loan, reaping benefits before the company collapsed. Today, companies like QCells, which received a $1.45 billion LPO loan guarantee for solar manufacturing, benefit from similar largesse, despite the U.S. solar industry’s inability to compete with China’s dominance. These projects enrich corporate stakeholders while leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for failures.
Nuclear: A Reliable, Clean Alternative
Amid this green energy quagmire, nuclear power stands out as a reliable, low-carbon alternative that has been unfairly maligned. Nuclear plants provide consistent baseload power, unaffected by weather, and emit no greenhouse gases during operation. The LPO has made some investments in nuclear, such as a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to restart the Holtec Palisades plant in Michigan, but these are dwarfed by its focus on wind and solar.
Decades of fear-mongering—fueled by high-profile accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima—have obscured nuclear’s safety record. Modern designs, like small modular reactors (SMRs), offer enhanced safety and scalability, making them ideal for meeting rising electricity demand. Unlike wind and solar, nuclear doesn’t require vast land or backup systems, and its waste is manageable compared to the unrecyclable debris from renewables. Expanding nuclear, alongside natural gas, could deliver the energy dominance America needs without the market distortions of subsidized renewables.
A Path Forward
The LPO’s current trajectory is unsustainable. If it must exist, it should be reformed to prioritize technologies that deliver reliable, affordable power—nuclear, natural gas, and geothermal—while minimizing taxpayer risk. As ZeroHedge argues, “LPO investments should prioritize infrastructure that meets real-world demand regardless of the weather or the time of day.” Alternatively, Congress could shutter the program entirely, as suggested by some GOP lawmakers and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, redirecting funds to proven energy sources.
Rural America’s rejection of wind and solar, combined with the LPO’s history of waste, underscores the need for energy realism. The Green New Scam thrives on taxpayer dollars and empty promises, enriching insiders while destabilizing the grid and harming the environment it claims to save. By embracing nuclear and other reliable sources, America can achieve energy dominance without sacrificing affordability or stability. It’s time to end the boondoggle and invest in an energy future that works for all Americans.