We just wanted to point out a great article by Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation called "Solyndra and the Republican Outrage Machine." Here's an excerpt, bolding added for emphasis:
Despite the evidence, Romney wants to convince Americans that a bad bet on Solyndra is more significant than decades of outsourcing and downsizing. There’s a real risk that reporters—hungry for scandal and hypnotized by false equivalence—will let him get away with it. At stake is more than an electoral football. Like Reagan’s fabled Cadillac-driving “welfare queen” or much-hyped claims of voter fraud or food stamp abuse, this right-wing myth-making has dire policy consequences. As Solyndra becomes shorthand for scandal, the well gets poisoned for future progress.
We can’t afford for that to happen. As former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones—no stranger to right-wing faux outrage machine—reminds us, green jobs are at the hearts of some of our deepest challenges: Building a better, broader politics. Forging a true industrial policy and an economy that works for the 99 percent. Averting environmental calamity.
The attacks on Solyndra are more than just attacks on Obama—they’re attacks on the notion of government as a place where we can come together to take on big challenges, drive economic innovation and advance our common interests while securing a sustainable future. The Solyndra scolds don’t just want to take down Obama—they want to hold back our politics. Let’s not let them.
Needless to say, we agree with Katrina vanden Heuvel on the need to fight back against attacks by the dirty energy industries, and the politicians who love them, against wind and solar. If you need positive evidence that green energy is working to create jobs and grow the economy, check out these solar executives talking about how these are good times for solar power, times that are likely to get even better in coming years. Also check out the The Solar Foundation’s (TSF) National Solar Jobs Census 2011, which Andrea Luecke discusses here, as well as articles like this one, which explains how "Illinois’ 23 largest wind farms will add $5.8 billion to local economies and result in the creation of more than 19,000 jobs over their useful lives."
We could go on and on, but you get the idea; clean energy is working, it's creating economic value and jobs, and it's gaining momentum fast. No matter what the phony "outrage machine" spews out.