Colorado is fast turning into a showpiece for a failed renewable energy policy

Colorado, the previously proud home of the "new energy economy", is fast becoming a showpiece for a failed renewable energy policy: 

The combined layoffs, plant closure and mothballed projects in Colorado represent the loss of more than 1,000 existing and projected jobs, plus millions of dollars of tax revenue and spinoff economic activity.

"It's not just Colorado," said William Yeatman, an energy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based free-market think tank.

"Renewable-energy manufacturing is taking a beating across the country, primarily due to the fact that federal subsidies have run their course," he said. "The 2009 stimulus has been spent, and the wind production-tax credit is set to expire in December. Without taxpayer handouts, these green industries simply cannot compete."

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Of course the wind and solar energy barons claim that tax credits and loan guarantees are necessary for their industries to survive until they are able to compete with other power sources. But that is of course pure green nonsense. In the foreseeable future wind and solar power will not be competitive sources of energy. Besides, there is no need for them, as there is more than enough of clean shale gas (and oil) for at least one hundred years in the U.S. - and in other parts of the world.