Romney’s Energy Project Past (Romney’s Solyndra? CTP Hydrogen, Protonex Tech…

Mitt Romney penned an op-ed in the Orange County Register Monday carrying the new line of attack on President Obama’s energy policy: the Solyndra collapse is more evidence he wrote that the government “shouldn’t be playing venture capitalist” when it comes to alternative energy projects. “It’s not merely that government bureaucrats are bad at picking winners” he wrote. “The very process invites cronyism and outright corruption.” But Romney is a private-sector venture capitalist by vocation, and during his tenure as Massachusetts Governor, he set up a program almost exactly like the ones he’s now denouncing. In 2003 Romney launched the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund, a $15 million project at providing “an opportunity to capitalize on two emerging trends: the growing level of investment interest in clean energy and the importance of Massachusetts academic and corporate R&D in forming clean energy technology companies,” according to the website… And so while Romney has criticized Solyndra on the campaign trail as a major failure of the Obama administration his Green Energy Fund invested in several companies that have failed or not lived up to expectations… The fuel cell company CTP Hydrogen, for example, closed its doors in 2008 and laid off most of its 10-person staff. Protonex Technology Corporation recently delisted from the London Stock Exchange, laying off a third of its employees and shuttering its Colorado location… (Excerpt) Read more at politico.com …