Flushing taxpayers’ money down the “green” toilet in Washington has become a habit for President Barack Obama’s administration.

Now, to hundreds of millions of dollars gone in government subsidies for solar power projects and companies such as Solyndra, add geothermal energy to the mix.

And add U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to the list of politicians who have helped failing “green” energy firms with taxpayers’ money.

It was reported recently Nevada Geothermal Power company is in hot water financially. According to a published report, NGP has lost $98 million during the past several years and, after servicing its debt, is having trouble covering operating costs.

If NGP joins losers such as Solyndra in going bankrupt, taxpayers may lose the $98.5 million in loan guarantees provided the firm by the Obama administration through a program Reid pushed in the Senate.

While Obama, Reid and associates do all in their power to ruin the coal industry, they are using billions of dollars in public funds to postpone the demises of some “green” energy enterprises.

That is something voters ought to remember in November.

The (Tiffin) Advertiser-Tribune

 

Executive order will help protect Lake Erie

A high fin from the fish in Lake Erie to Gov. John Kasich, who signed an executive order July 11 that bans oil and gas drilling in Lake Erie.

His action provides a welcome layer of protection should Congress lift its own ban on drilling in the Great Lakes, the largest freshwater ecosystem on the continent.

Kasich’s order prohibits drilling not just in but also under Lake Erie, a distinction that could be important given the anticipated expansion in Ohio of horizontal drilling by companies fracturing the rock, or “fracking,” for deeply buried shale oil and gas. …

Ohio’s fracking and water-resource protection laws still need tightening, but Kasich’s latest actions — combined with initiatives such as the $3 million Healthy Lake Erie Fund — show that he is determined to exercise good environmental stewardship over what he rightly describes as a “crown jewel for our state.”

That same urgency must extend to shaking the White House out of its complacency on the risk posed by encroaching Asian carp.

A comprehensive scientific assessment released recently by the U.S. and Canadian governments suggests that as few as 10 breeding carp pairs could explode in numbers should they get into the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin, crippling multibillion-dollar fishing, tourism and recreational assets.

Hydrological separation at Chicago remains the best answer and must be accomplished without further delay.

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer