LETTER: Crescent Dunes is hardly typical of green energy projects

Your recent editorial, “Future of Crescent Dunes solar plant appears bleak,” is an insult to the countless solar and wind power projects that have succeeded remarkably well in bringing economically competitive renewable energy to America.

Your editorial wrongly asserts that Crescent Dunes fits a “depressingly familiar pattern” of overhyped green energy projects that have benefited from federal loan guarantees and then left taxpayers “holding a bad check.” In reality, loan guarantees helped catalyze a whole new sector of utility-scale power generation based on non-carbon-emitting technologies at a time when private lenders were hesitant to enter the fray.

The setbacks at Crescent Dunes are unique to the pioneering technology used at that facility. It should not cast a shadow on the vast majority of renewable energy plants that are successfully propelling us toward a more sustainable energy future.