Lomborg op-ed in USA Today: Government shouldn't be picking Solyndras
The lesson from the federal government's failed backing of Solyndra is not that the United States should abandon energy innovation. It is that the government should not try to pick industry winners in the race to replace fossil fuels with an alternative. Solyndra is the now-bankrupt solar-panel manufacturer that received a $535 million federal loan guarantee in 2009 to build a factory based on the proposition that solar power should be captured through solar cylinders rather than the more established technology of silicon wafers. Solyndra lost the gamble on its technology — and taxpayers lost a half-billion dollars. Congressional investigators are now probing whether any laws were broken in this venture, amid allegations of favoritism. (...)
