Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Guaranteed loans for clean energy are a bad rerun

How short are our memories? Have we learned nothing from experience?

The Las Vegas Sun’s Monday editorial, “Undercutting the future — Republican plan to end federal program would hurt Nevada and the nation,” wants the federal government to guarantee loans for renewable energy projects for the obvious objective of getting pollution-free energy and job creation.

Both are laudable goals. But does this ring of the Community Reinvestment Act, which wanted to foster home ownership, create construction jobs, etc., but ended up creating the largest financial crisis in history with the Federal Reserve, Fannie and Freddie holding trillions of bad mortgages? Wait, we the people own this stuff.

When these projects go broke, who is going to pick up the pieces? And who is going to get the blame? Wall Street for marketing guaranteed junk bonds? The developers who do the projects? The ratepayers who are going to get tired of much higher utility bills?

If these projects were financially viable, they would be done without government help. Guaranteeing the loans only puts the taxpayers on the hook rather than having a project make economic sense. And, I’m sorry, I’m tired of being hooked. And as a financial adviser, no clients of mine will bite either.

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