Government Incompetence At Picking Winners and Losers

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/11/28/failed-oregon-solar-equipment-plant-leaves-behind-millions-in-taxpayer-losses/
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/28/obama-takes-credit-us-oil-and-gas-boom-was-me-peop/

Contrast the two stories above. One explains how the government (feds / state / local) embraced a specific solar power project in Oregon. Several years later, the company failed. The failure is only the latest in a long line of well-known subsidized failures (Solyndra, etc.). In contrast, the federal government spent years trying to crush fossil fuel industries. Obama famously assured us that we could not drill our way out of dependence on foreign oil. The free market nevertheless set the record straight in both cases. The government can be a better referee / umpire for the market's excesses if it keeps its hands off the scale. It's a fair criticism to say that the government is simply not good at picking winners and losers. We should discourage the tendencies of the executive and legislative to stop wasting taxpayer money on such subsidies and competition-stifling activities.