Picking Losers

 William Yeatman, an energy policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the lawsuit illustrates the dangers of cronyism.

“Whenever the government engages in industrial policy (i.e., whenever the government tries to create industries out of whole cloth, like the ‘green energy’ industry), politics invariably corrupts the process,” Yeatman wrote in an email.

Citing Peter Schweizer’s book Throw Them All Out, Yeatman noted “$16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted by the stimulus-created loan guarantee program ‘went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers.’”

Cause of Action’s Epstein said the lawsuit shows “what happens when you have the government picking winners and losers.”