So the Friends of Spain Caucus on the Hill held a briefing yesterday styled “Alternative Energy: Lessons from Spain.” As Planet Gore readers can immediately smell, this was another effort aimed at rehabilitating the Spanish Miracle that Barack Obama has swore we would all have to follow. Nothing made more sense than having Spain’s biggest expert on the topic, Dr. Gabriel Calzada of King Juan Carlos and two other universities, address the practical experience.
But there was one problem. The Spanish government advised the organizers that they would not participate if Calzada was included. Waaah.
As a quick refresher, this apparently dangerous man was the lead author of an assessment’s of Spain’s “green jobs” disaster, which assessment was so sound that the Spanish government issued a Royal Decree in April affirming the findings.
He’s also the guy on whom former Al Gore employee and current Assistant Secretary of Energy Cathy Zoi apparently sicced two young (non-economist, if earnest) activists at the National Renewable Energy Labs to write a white paper that was little more than an incoherent hit job.
I FOIA’d the machinations, this being such a sleazy move, after both DoE and NREL got caught up in someone’s lie, each telling Congress and the media that it was the other one’s idea. Well, they are now very out of compliance with FOIA, and I suppose are crying out for attention and help. So be it.
But as regards yesterday’s Spanish lesson: I’m told by a participant that the moderator closed with a rather unbelievable, if consistent, absurdity: “And if you asked the public or private sectors in Spain, or even the general public, they would say the program has been a tremendous success.” Well,, sure, if you insist that only sycophants and cheerleaders be considered among the public and private sectors. Among academics, the Calzada team’s paper was widely supported and, of course, the Royal Decree says quite a lot.
And it’s clear by that decree that Spain has admitted it can’t afford much more success. And we have no business doing this to ourselves, even if our president serially vowed we would and his only political instinct when confronting such troubles appears to be doubling down. Let’s see how forthcoming the initial DoE and NREL document productions are, however they may have to be compelled. Who knows, maybe we’ve got more things to discuss in the current Climategate narrative showing the public what really is going on in the push to “fundamentally transform America.”