President Obama will visit the Triangle on Monday to pedal his notions of using green energy policies to create jobs. He will use the Cree lighting company as a matte painting for his foray into North Carolina, which he desperately needs to win in 2012. Cree CEO Chuck Swoboda has open arms for the president:
“We’re honored to host President Obama at Cree,” Swoboda said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to showcasing our industry-leading, energy-efficient technologies and participating in discussions on policies that can spur economic growth and promote U.S. job creation.”
Obama, with the aid of his disgraced Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, have pushed greenism since their days as community organizers. It’s one thing for a company to produce an energy-efficient product that the market responds to. It’s another for the federal government to mandate that the market like the product, which is Obama’s approach.
Swoboda, whose name, ironically, means freedom in Russian, doesn’t see any dissonance here. Maybe he should read about the hundreds of jobs that Obama’s energy policies are costing Americans in other parts of the country:
American Electric Power on Thursday announced it plans to shut down several coal-fired power plants, convert or retrofit others, and cut as many as 600 jobs in the next few years to comply with regulations proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
UPDATE: Former Carolina Journal Associate Editor Paul Chesser writes to point out the total lack of context in the News & Observer‘s story today (linked above) about Obama’s visit to Cree on Monday. It’s not just out of the goodness of his heart that Obama is visiting Cree, and it’s not an accident that CEO Swoboda would roll out the red carpet.
Paul points out in a column from last year that Cree is heavily subsidized by the federal government, distorting market forces and making a winner out of Cree through crony capitalism, Obama’s modus operandi when it comes to economics.
And in March of 2010 Paul wrote this:
A news report did mention, however, that Cree has received a $39-million tax credit through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, as well as $1.8 million in stimulus money for research and development. This coincided nicely with a visit by Cree president and CEO Chuck Swoboda to the White House last July, as well as a 2009 increase in Cree’s lobbying expenditures of 137 percent over the previous year. But then again, Cree has always been an expert rent-seeker (chasing earmarks as well)…
So now you know why Swoboda is so sweet on Obama. He knows where is bread is buttered.
