Following the Senate’s rejection of the Continuing Resolution passed by the House last night, it has become apparent that the impending government shutdown is not the fault of a bunch of “intransigent Tea Party extremists,” or whatever phrase the media are using to describe small-government conservatives these days, but the fault of intransigent Green extremists.

What’s behind the Senate’s rejection? Politico has the details of what is being cut to fund the disaster-relief program

Boehner chose to stick with plans to take $1.5 billion from an advanced technology manufacturing program for the auto industry. As if to punctuate this point, a new $100 million cut was added to the bill Thursday, rescinding unobligated money in an alternative energy loan fund that helped finance Solyndra LLC, the controversial solar panel manufacturer in California that has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Remember that, as Vero noted, until 2002, any disaster-related funding was paid for by offsetting savings elsewhere — the fiscally responsible way to do it. So the general principle shouldn’t be an issue. What really is the issue is that green-energy boondoggles are being cut. That’s something the Green left just will not stand for, and the result is that they are risking all the things we were told just a few weeks ago were so terrible — grannies not getting Social Security checks, the poor dying for lack of health care, national parks closing down, dogs and cats living together — all over a few hundred million in alt-energy funding. That’s where the barricades are being set up now — saving the Solyndras of the world. Incredible.

Meanwhile, as if to underscore the point, President Obama is out campaigning with someone he’s funneling taxpayer money to, all in the name of saving the earth. The “Green Economy” in action, folks.

Of course, the kicker is that if the government were to shut down, all those green-energy subsidies would stop as well, and the green-tech firms would collapse as a result. As someone once said, you couldn’t make it up.