Paul Ryan’s Energy Record Elates Right, Deflates Greens
by Andrew Restuccia (Politico) The Wisconsin Republican has been an outspoken critic of President Barack Obama’s clean energy agenda, offering a fiscal plan earlier this year that neatly mirrors the GOP’s policy priorities. The plan would expand oil and gas drilling, limit the reach of the EPA and kill the Energy Department’s clean energy loan program.
…But a June 2011 LCV ad that ran in Ryan’s home district may offer a hint at what’s to come. The ad highlights a Newsweek/Daily Beast investigation that said Ryan’s personal investments would benefit from his own policy proposals, including a plan to maintain tax breaks for oil companies.
“Paul Ryan: Protecting Big Oil profits, lining his own pockets,” the ad said.
…But Ryan will have an opportunity to counter Obama’s attacks by using his Budget Committee chairman’s credentials to argue that the tax credit — and by extension the entirety of the administration’s investments in renewable energy — is a handout to an industry that can’t stand on its own without taxpayer money, a common GOP talking point. READ MORE
