Yesterday, everyone involved in the support and opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline got what they wanted: Obama tossed a squib to environmentalist supporters whom he's previously disappointed, and Republican boosters of the pipeline got to turn the Obama's refusal (which they accelerated by attaching a February 21 deadline for approval to the payroll tax bill) into a talking point against Obama in the upcoming election. In a country without a greenhouse gas strategy or an energy policy, this is passing for political action, but it's really... nothing, a draw, a symbol of symbols.

Until September of 2010, Pam Boucher’s life was small. Living in Brunswick, Me., a rural town of 21,000, she was dependent upon others to move. At the time, she used crutches or a walker to get around and seizures prevented her from driving. She’d get rides to medical appointments from a social service agency. Trips to buy groceries, or visit her husband in a nursing home, required the help of her adult sons or scheduling a social service staff member. A trip to the local Wal-Mart would cost $28 in taxi fees. Socializing outside her apartment was pretty much impossible.

Bashing green energy has recently become a major Republican talking point. Darrell Issa, once a champion of green-job stimulus funds for his district, held a House oversight committee hearing titled "How Obama's Green Energy Agenda Is Killing Jobs." Rush Limbaugh says green energy is a "slush fund" that takes money from unwitting taxpayers under the guise of saving the planet and rewards Democratic donors.

The world will need 50 percent more energy by 2035. To compete in the world economy and generate manufacturing jobs in the coming decades, the United States needs to both nurture a green economy and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. By comparison to other government energy investments, Solyndra's failure is more symbolic than fatal. Taxpayers have lost far more money to previous government bets on risky energy projects. Chief among them is nuclear power, which depends on hundreds of millions in government subsidies.