The Obama Administration’s “green jobs” agenda is apparently not limited to the United States. According to CNS News, the administration created a $20 million grant that will go toward creating green projects...in Africa.
The U.S. government is spending $20 million to “help clean energy projects in Africa get started.” Those projects include wind farms and solar panels, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced at the recent Rio +20 Conference in Brazil.
But the government watchdog Judicial Watch criticized the spending as wasteful, given the administration’s track record in trying to pick green energy winners.
“The U.S.-Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative will help clean energy projects in Africa get started,” said Clinton in her June 22 speech. “This is an innovative partnership between three United States government entities – the State Department, OPIC (the Overseas Private Investment Corporation), and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. We want to drive private sector investment into the energy sector.”
Clintonsaid the initial $20 million grant will "leverage much larger investment flows from OPIC,” which is the U.S. government's development finance institution. “That will open the door then for hundreds of millions of dollars of OPIC financing, plus hundreds of millons of more dollars from the private sector for projects that otherwise would never get off the drawing board.”
Admittedly, $20 million is a drop in the bucket when compared to other misuses of taxpayer dollars by the federal government. However, this $20 million grant serves as a clear example of the Obama Administration’s failed Keynesian approach to growing the economy. The President’s policy of picking winners and losers has not worked in the United States (Solyndra, anyone?) and there is no reason to expect it to work in Africa.
Editor's Note: This post was authored by Townhall.com editorial intern, Kyle Bonnell.