POST-GAZETTE - Res Publica

Color Blind

by David Trumbull -- January 21, 2011

On January 11th Evergreen Solar, Inc., a manufacturer of solar power products announced its intent to shut down operations at its Devens, Mass., manufacturing facility. According to an Evergreen Solar press release, the company intends to completely shut down the Devens manufacturing facility by the end of the first quarter of 2011. In total, the company expects that approximately 800 employees will be affected by this action.

In announcing the loss of jobs in Massachusetts the company cited the difficulty of competing saying, “Solar manufacturers in China have received considerable government and financial support and, together with their low manufacturing costs, have become price leaders within the industry.” Evergreen will continue to make solar power panels, but the company will do so in China.

So much for the “for new green energy economies that can create countless well-paying jobs.” That line is from President Obama’s speech on the ocassion of the February 17, 2009 signing of the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Remember that more than $800 billion “stimulus” package? It took money from hard-working Americans suffering during the ecomonic slowdown and redistributed it to well-financed and politically-connected special interest groups. Kudos, again, to the Republicans in the House, for hanging together and opposing that Obama-nation. Obama and the Decmocrats in Congress got to play Santa and give out favors to every left-wing group in town. You and me—and our children—will pay for years to come with a lower standard of living and weakened economic prospects for America.

Now we see the results here in the Bay State. Governor Patrick committed the taxpayers to an assistance package for Evergreen Solar to the sum of tens of millions of dollars. Now the company is relocating production to China. No jobs were created—at least not in Massachusetts. According to news accounts the Commonwealth can recover but a fraction of the money lavished on this fashionable green technology.

I’m not the first to note that the so-called “green” movement looks, to those of us who are not color-blind, as just the latest version of the old “red” movement, and with the same effect—money is redistributed from the earners to some more “deserving” class. “Deserving” class, one may observe, just coincidentally—I’m sure there’s no connection—is largely over-lapping with the class known as Democrat voters and contributors to left-wing causers.


[David Trumbull is the chairman of the Boston Ward Three Republican Committee. Boston's Ward Three includes the North End, West End, part of Beacon Hill, downtown, waterfront, Chinatown, and part of the South End.]

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