Hurricane Sandy to Cost $40 Billion… Or, About Half as Much as Obama Blew on Green Energy Boondoggles

It’s going to cost billions.


Hurricane Sandy was so devastating it will cost American taxpayers about half as much as Barack Obama blew on his green energy boondoggles.
The devastation of Hurricane Sandy may cost from $30 billion to $50 billion.
The Huffington Post reported:

On Tuesday, one estimate from IHS Global Insight put total costs at somewhere between $30 billion and $50 billion, including $20 billion in infrastructure damages. Hurricane Irene, which struck the Northeast in August of 2011, cost about $13 billion in economic damages, according to data compiled by Moody’s Analytics.
As high as the numbers seem, economists say the overall impact on the economy will be minor — some costs from the hurricane will be paid by insurers, and others will be offset with rebuilding and recovery efforts.

The cost of the historic hurricane is about one-half as much as Barack Obama blew on green energy boondoggles in one year.
In 2009 Barack Obama blew $90 billion on green energy projects.
Green Tech Energy reported:

The Department of Energy has already given out nearly $17 billion in stimulus package funding, and that’s set to nearly double by year’s end, said Matt Rogers, the senior advisor to Energy Secretary Steven Chu who’s in charge of keeping track of those billions of dollars.
Eager would-be recipients should stay tuned, as “we’ve got a very exciting fall,” he said Tuesday at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum-WEST conference in San Francisco.
Still, some DOE stimulus funding sources are flowing faster than others, as was noted by observers of the slow progress for a $6 billion DOE loan guarantee program for clean energy generation and transmission projects.
With a host of upcoming announcements, the DOE should boost its stimulus handouts to nearly $30 billion in the coming months, Rogers said. That’s out of about $90 billion the department has responsibility for giving out under the stimulus package signed into law in February.

So far 34 companies that were offered federal support from taxpayers are faltering — either having gone bankrupt or laying off workers or heading for bankruptcy.