The cost of being ‘green’  

Credit:  By Boston Herald Editorial Staff | www.bostonherald.com 22 June 2012 ~~

In the immortal words of Kermit the Frog “it’s not easy being green.”

And taxpayers are finding out it’s also not cheap. In fact, the public subsidies bestowed locally on companies like the now departed Evergreen Solar and the $535 million in federally backed loans to the now bankrupt Solyndra are only the two most obvious examples.

But it’s Cape Wind, the 130 turbines slated for the pristine waters of Nantucket Sound, that will be the gift that keeps on giving — doubling or tripling the cost of energy to local ratepayers. It has always been the wrong project in the wrong place and certainly at the wrong price.

But now at last the corners cut and whether agencies were bullied into submission may become the subject of a congressional probe — by the same congressman who has been all over the Solyndra scandal, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.).

“It appears that an investigation is warranted in the case of Cape Wind to determine if the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] acted inappropriately due to political pressure from the [Obama] administration,” Stearns told the Herald.

“This is yet another example of this administration making dubious decisions based upon political considerations in pushing out these energy projects without conducting due diligence that would call into question their viability or value,” he noted.

The FAA and the Coast Guard had to certify that the project would not pose public safety risks — decisions which might now come under the scrutiny of the House Oversight Committee or the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Frankly we’re not fussy which group takes a second look at this pending nightmare for ratepayers. In its effort to make what then-state energy secretary Ian Bowles insisted would be “worldwide news,” common sense was left behind.

Perhaps congressional scrutiny can help set things right.