White
House agrees to Solyndra interviews under subpoena threat. House Republicans canceled plans to
subpoena executive branch officials over the Solyndra loan guarantee after reaching an agreement with the White
House Thursday [2/16/2012]. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative panel
had planned to vote Friday on a resolution authorizing subpoenas to two White House officials and three officials
of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The Week That Was. [At the bottom of
Page 2:] Slowly, information is leaking from nations that have spent heavily on wind and solar,
such as Germany. This information should give pause to those touting solar and wind, including politicians.
England is pulling back from wind, Germany has announced drastic cut-backs on its subsidies to solar, and Spain
has announced the elimination of subsidies for renewable power. These actions are not the result of success.
Taxpayers
Take Hit as Solar Industry Implodes. In a year where Solyndra became the face of the solar industry's
chronic failures, even the holiday season could not prevent one last flurry of layoffs in 2011. The Mountain
Enterprise (based in Frazier Park, Calif.) reported over the weekend that First Solar, Inc. — which the
media sometimes identifies as the largest solar company in the world — laid off half its employees
on Friday [12/30/2012] at its Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One project.
Another
Fed-Backed Solar Company Goes Bankrupt. Adding to the growing list of failed "green" energy companies,
another solar firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday [2/14/2012] in hopes of selling off its solar power
subsidiaries and other assets. Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (ECD), a Michigan-based manufacturer of thin-film
solar laminates, said it will continue to operate through the bankruptcy and sale process.
"Greek
Debt Exposes Green Energy Subsidies". In late January President Barack Obama's much-vaunted Spanish
renewable energy 'success' story became the latest high-profile victim of subsidy cutbacks when the Madrid
government unexpectedly dropped the axe on plans for all new renewable energy projects. Spain's decision
followed hard on the heels of a similar decision by Germany to phase out its solar subsidy regime entirely by
2017. The British Government too is currently embroiled in a court battle to cut in half the overly-generous
solar subsidy scheme set up by the previous Labour Government.
Judicial
Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2011. Despite the
Obama administration's reticence to release details regarding this scandal, much is known about this shady deal.
White House officials warned the president that the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program was "dangerously short
on due diligence," nonetheless the Obama administration rushed the Solyndra loan through the approval process so it
could make a splash at a press event. The company's main financial backer was a major Obama campaign donor
named George Kaiser. While the White House said Kaiser never discussed the loan with White House officials, the
evidence suggests this is a lie.
Judicial Watch Sues Obama Administration for Records Detailing Bailout Loan to SunPower.
Another day another taxpayer funded bailout to a politically connected energy company up to its eyeballs in debt.
This time, it's a California solar company called SunPower. And Judicial Watch is once again battling the Obama
administration for details as to how the deal went down.
Solyndra Tip of Iceberg — Tens of Billions Yet to Come.
Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research, says the Obama administration's investment of taxpayer dollars into
his own idea of a green initiative is a "great business model if you have no scruples." Solyndra is just
the tip of the iceberg, he says in this interview clip with Ginni Thomas.
Another Taxpayer
Funded $825 Million Solar Loan Going to Waste. Solyndra? Let's try Genesis. In Southern
California, federal and state governments have been working to expedite a solar project in order to satisfy President
Obama's solar agenda. The problems that could derail the $825 million taxpayer funded project? Kit
foxes and an ancient burial site.
Problems cast
shadows of doubt on solar project. One of California's showcase solar energy projects, under
construction in the desert east of Los Angeles, is being threatened by a deadly outbreak of distemper among
kit foxes and the discovery of a prehistoric human settlement on the work site.
Republicans
accuse White House of Solyndra stonewall. House Republicans accused the White House on Thursday [2/9/2012]
of stonewalling a congressional probe into the failed $535 million loan guarantee to bankrupt solar panel
maker Solyndra LLC and threatened to issue subpoenas later this month to secure interviews with "key administration
staff."
Democrats designed it so 1/3rd of the loans defaulted.
The Associated Press accidentally stumbled upon the truth of Department of Energy "loans" -- the Democratic
Party designed them to lose $10 billion, and they seem to be conveniently lost in the direction of
Democratic Party donors.
'Agenders' and Right Wing Conspirators.
A recent article in the Atlantic Monthly, "Is the UN Using Bike Paths to Achieve World Domination?" by Andrew
Cohen, drew my intense attention. ... Cohen does not mention the numerous bankrupted renewable energy companies
such as Solyndra, Evergreen Energy Inc., Beacon, Ener1, Amonix Inc. that squandered billions of taxpayer dollars
while failing to deliver any affordable renewable energy to American households.
Clean green fraud. The
spectacular failure of Solyndra opened a lot of eyes. Yet the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer is far from the
only fly-by-night outfit to take advantage of the current "green energy" fad. No program is more ripe for abuse
than the renewable fuel standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Last week, House Energy and
Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, Michigan Republican, and Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield,
Kentucky Republican, opened their own investigation into the fraudulent outfits that sell tradeable biodiesel fuel
credits to legitimate companies that need to meet the arbitrary mandates established by the EPA and Congress.
L.A. Times
Skewers Radical Left's Hypocrisy on Protecting the Environment. The development of a solar power
plant in the Mojave will decimate large swaths of the desert — all in the name of creating alternative
energy sources and driven by global warming hysteria. Both the Bush and Obama administrations share the
blame. Tens of billions of dollars have been made available for the development of non-fossil fuel burning
energy sources, and the costs to the consumer will be substantially higher than that of traditional sources —
and that's to say nothing of the costs to taxpayers in the subsidies going to fund this boondoggle. It's
pretty messed up all around, but the inevitable result of a regulatory state that would make the old Soviet
bureaucrats proud.
Sacrificing the desert
to save the Earth. BrightSource Energy's Ivanpah solar power project will soon be a humming city
with 24-hour lighting, a wastewater processing facility and a gas-fired power plant. To make room, BrightSource
has mowed down a swath of desert plants, displaced dozens of animal species and relocated scores of imperiled
desert tortoises, a move that some experts say could kill up to a third of them.
White
House gives up more Solyndra docs. Amid threats by a top House Republican to pursue contempt charges,
the White House on Friday sent lawmakers more internal documents related to the $535 million loan guarantee to
failed solar firm Solyndra. The White House, in providing the 313 pages of documents, again denied
that approval of the loan guarantee in 2009 was influenced by politics, an allegation that Republicans have
repeated for months.
More
about Friday night document dumps: the technique
used by "the most transparent administration in history" to hide embarrassing developments from the news media.
Germany's Solar
Crack-Up. Germany enjoys, if that's the right word, a thriving solar-energy industry. But
the cost of this success, to taxpayers and electricity users alike, has risen to astronomical levels.
Some 56% of green-energy subsidies in Germany goes to solar even though solar plants produce only 21% of all
subsidized energy. The cost to German consumers of all solar subsidy commitments already
tops €100 billion. And you thought Solyndra was expensive.
An Administration's Green Fiascos Pile Up.
The Solyndra fiasco is the highest-profile of the president's many green failures, but it's hardly the only one.
Barely a week goes by but that we learn of yet another government-funded "clean energy" boondoggle. Let's
consider a few examples.
15
Questions The Mainstream Media Would Ask Barack Obama If He Were A Republican: [#2] In 2010
you said Solyndra, which gave your campaign a lot of money, was "leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous
future." Today, Solyndra is bankrupt and the taxpayers lost $500 million on loans that your administration
was well aware might never be paid off when you made them. What do you say to people who say this is evidence of
corruption in your administration?
Obama the promise breaker.
It turns out 2011 was not a Sputnik moment. Instead, it was Mr. Obama's Solyndra moment. The
California-based solar plant manufacturer embodied everything about the administration's green obsession.
The White House steered $535 million worth of public funds into a solar-panel manufacturer with a dubious
business plan. This government stimulus was supposed to "create" 4,000 jobs. By August, the
firm went bankrupt, illustrating the hollow nature of government-created, artificial markets.
Solyndra
caught destroying brand new parts. Bankrupt solar company Solyndra was caught by a local TV station
destroying up to $2 million dollars of specialized glass tubes purchased from a German company.
Germany's
Answer To Our Ethanol Folly. I thought it would be a tall order to have a greater energy folly
than our ethanol scam, which cost taxpayers billions in direct and indirect subsidies over the last decade or
two, but it turns out the Germans have figured out how to do it — through solar power. Der Spiegel
online has a devastating article out this week on Germany's manic obsession with solar power, whose price tag
has now topped $100 billion over the last decade. For this massive amount of money, solar power
only provides about 3 percent of Germany's total electricity.
Did
someone mention ethanol?
Another
subsidized solar company lays off most of its employees. Willard & Kelsey Solar Group LLC laid off
about 40 people indefinitely at the beginning of January until changes to its production line are completed,
a company official said Monday [1/16/2012]. Michael Cicak, the company's chief executive officer and chairman of the
board, would not say when the changes would be completed or when the laid-off employees could return to work.
Attorneys
for laid-off Solyndra employees rail against bonus plan. Attorneys suing Solyndra in a class-action
lawsuit on behalf of former employees are criticizing plans by the company to hand out bonuses of up to $50,000
to 21 current supervisors and other employees. Attorneys for Peter M. Kohlstadt, whose pending
lawsuit says Solyndra broke labor laws when it laid off hundreds of workers without warning last year, argued
in a court filing Monday that the employees slated to receive extra cash already are well-paid, with all but
five earning more than $100,000.
EPA
is Binge Gambling with US Economy. In recent history, we've collectively bet on "sure things" and
lost. We once believed there was an energy shortage — but modern technology and resource expansion
have created a global oil glut, and natural gas is so plentiful that it is currently priced at a two-year low.
America is now a net exporter of fuel. Renewable energy was a sure thing. Presidents Bush and Obama threw
taxpayer dollars at it — but it hasn't paid off. Solyndra (and others) have gone bankrupt, taking
taxpayer dollars with them.
Bankrupt
Solyndra seeking to pay bonuses. Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt
Solyndra LLC, but that's the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to
persuade key employees to stay put. Nearly two dozen Solyndra employees could receive bonuses ranging from
$10,000 to $50,000 each under a proposal filed by Solyndra's attorneys in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
11 More Solyndras About to Crash.
There are at least another 11 Solyndras in Obama's backyard just ready to crash. The Obama Administration
said they knew that several of the companies would fail. They built in $2.4 billion into the program
for potential failures. That's criminal. Solyndra was not an isolated incident. There are
several green energy projects that are going to fail.
White
House sends GOP another batch of Solyndra documents. The White House on Friday [1/13/2012] sent more
internal documents to Republicans investigating the $535 million loan guarantee to failed solar firm Solyndra,
arguing that the cache of emails should satisfy GOP investigators. The emails show senior White House aides
discussing the need to coordinate messaging with the Energy Department and others ahead of Solyndra layoffs that
occurred in early November 2010.
House
Republican links Daley's departure to Solyndra probe. The House Republican leading the investigation into
the Obama administration's $535 million Solyndra loan guarantee alleged Tuesday that White House Chief of Staff
Bill Daley resigned in part because of the GOP probe into the failed solar company.
A sustainable depression.
As in other depressions, scads of real money has been lost, sustained by the snake oil that global warming is
such a threat to us all that we should not just encourage, but legally compel, people to install the most
economically inefficient form of electrical generation on the planet — solar photovoltaic, and its
sibling in inconstancy, wind power. In various states and around the world, these are legislated by
"renewable portfolio standards." What we get is a sustainable depression.
The
Hype Surrounding Renewable Energy. [Scroll down] Solar power, like wind, is a natural, free
source of energy — provided that public subsidies and customers of high-priced electricity cover the
costs. In the U.S. the main federal subsidy currently pays for 30% of the cost for a residential system.
Then when other subsidies are added, as much as 75% of the cost can be covered. The U.S. Energy Information
Administration estimates that electricity produced by solar is presently three times more expensive than power
produced by natural gas. Also, like wind, it is severely constrained by geography and is intermittent.
And even under the best geographical sky and climate conditions there is still a recurring problem. It's
called "night".
Solar
firm behind area projects files for bankruptcy. Prospects for the 1,000-megawatt solar plant
being built in Blythe look increasingly bleak following the recent bankruptcy filing of German solar developer
Solar Millennium, the company behind the project. The company filed for insolvency — the
German equivalent of bankruptcy — on Dec. 21, and its assets could soon be liquidated.
When
Graft Won't Save You, It's Called Green Energy. If First Solar can't make it after all the
subsidized loans, state incentives, money spent on lobbying and political donations, then someone ought to
ask for their money back. Taxpayers ought to be first in line for a refund.
Journalistic Sun Stroke.
Sometimes our intrepid media class chooses to cover a story that perfectly (if inadvertently) illustrates the
real problem: our intrepid media class. Case in point: the Washington Post's Sunday feature
on the Solyndra scandal. In reading the headline one initially takes some solace that, however overdue,
the WaPo finally has gotten around to cover this half-billion dollar backdoor heist of the public treasury by
cronies of the President.
Utility may cut off power to solar plant.
Idaho Power plans to cut off electricity on Tuesday to plant in Pocatello, Idaho, that makes material for solar
energy, because the factory owes $1.9 million in unpaid utility bills. The dispute is with Honolulu-based
Hoku Scientific, Inc., which is backed by Chinese financing and enjoys federal and state incentives.
BrightSource
Ivanpah Project Following Solyndra Path? U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantees for BrightSource
Energy's Ivanpah solar power project may suffer the same fate as loan guarantees for the failed Solyndra company,
government watchdogs fear. Of even greater concern, the BrightSource loan guarantees total $1.6 billion,
triple the taxpayer dollars lost in Solyndra.
The dirty politics
of clean energy. Disturbing revelations continue to emerge about how more than half a billion dollars
of taxpayer dollars were shoveled into the Solyndra solar-panel boondoggle. It is becoming increasingly clear
that the only "green" involved in this scandal is money.
Dark Times Fall on
Solar Sector. Long viewed as a remedy for the world's dependence on fossil fuels, the solar
industry is dimming as makers of panels used to harness the sun continue to fall by the wayside.
Bankruptcies, plummeting stock prices and crushing debt loads are calling into question the viability of an
industry that since the 1970s has been counted on to advance the U.S. — and the world —
into a new energy age.
Solyndra:
Politics infused Obama energy programs. Since the failure of the company, Obama's entire $80 billion
clean-technology program has begun to look like a political liability for an administration about to enter a
bruising reelection campaign. Meant to create jobs and cut reliance on foreign oil, Obama's green-technology
program was infused with politics at every level, The Washington Post found in an analysis of thousands of
memos, company records and internal e-mails. Political considerations were raised repeatedly by company
investors, Energy Department bureaucrats and White House officials.
Obama's
Top Boners of 2011. [#6] Solyndra: The economic futility of the regime in Washington was
best displayed by the decision to "invest" US taxpayers' hard-earned money in Solyndra, even knowing that the
company would fail. This at a time when Obama was lecturing the half who actually pays taxes that we are
not paying our fair share.
Chris
Horner Testifies on the Folly of Green Energy Policy. [Scroll down] We do not know for sure
that Solyndra will put an end to politicians' profligate pouring of debt-financed wealth down this drain.
But, in the event this proves out, the half billion Solyndra cost us will also prove to have been worth it.
In the meantime, CEI supports educating Americans on the 'green jobs' and 'clean energy economy' theories, one
talking point at a time. Our elected policymakers must begin showing more restraint before embarking on
a vast compounding of the dilemma that ethanol supports have created, from which, politically, we apparently have
found no way out.
Did
someone mention ethanol?
Germany's solar power industry is the latest to flop as subsidies ebb.
Solyndra Does Europe.
This week Solon became the first publicly traded solar-power company to file for bankruptcy in Germany.
Despite cost-cutting and a round of last-minute negotiations, the Berlin-based photovoltaic equipment maker
can't make its deadline to repay €275 million in loans. You could call Solon a European version
of Solyndra, the California solar-cell maker that filed for bankruptcy in September after blowing through a
$535 million loan guaranteed by U.S. taxpayers. But Solon also represents a broader bust in
alternative-energy sources that's been more than a decade in the making.
Grand
jury begins probe of bankrupt Solyndra. A grand jury has begun investigating Solyndra LLC, the
failed California solar-panel maker that lost more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans, according to
law-firm billing records. Weeks after Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in September, a judge allowed the company
to hire a law firm to represent it in what court records at the time called a "federal criminal investigation."
Solar
to add billions to power bills. The [Australian] federal scheme to promote the installation of rooftop
solar panels and hot-water systems will have a cumulative cost to consumers of $4.7 billion by mid-2020,
adding to pressure on household power bills. The prediction is contained in advice to the nation's energy
ministers, which also forecasts rises in residential electricity prices of about 37 percent in the three
years to 2013-14, with an average annual hike of 11 percent.
How Goldman
played key role in Solyndra's rise. While government officials and venture investors who supported
Solyndra LLC are being put through the wringer by House Republicans, a powerful force on Wall Street that brought
these players together has largely stayed out of the spotlight. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which Solyndra
hired in 2008, helped propel the solar panel maker from Silicon Valley start-up to White House showcase.
Barack
Obama: Enron's Heir. Ten years ago today, on December 2, 2001, Enron declared bankruptcy.
The company is now liquidated, but Enron's intellectually insolvent "green energy" model is alive and well in the
Obama Administration. Cap-and-trade rationing of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and "green jobs" with wind
and solar — Enron was there first.
Solar power bankruptcies loom as prices collapse.
The once high-flying solar power sector is headed for tough times, as a combination of slack demand and massive
oversupply is leading to plummeting prices and profits for solar panel makers.
The
Solyndra Scandal's Key Players. House Republicans' ongoing investigation into the Solyndra loan
scandal has unearthed a wealth of e-mail evidence offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Obama
administration's ill-fated decision to guarantee a half-billion-dollar loan to a struggling solar company.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has heard testimony from top
administration officials, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu. However, a number of the key players
involved in the Solyndra decision have long since abandoned their posts. The American people deserve
answers from all of them.
Post
reporters, shining a light on the Solyndra scandal. The scandal at base is about how taxpayer
money is used, or misused, by government. It shows how the White House uses companies for its own
purposes and how companies try to use the White House to serve their aims. It shows how far political
appointees, and particularly the senior-most aides in the West Wing, will go to push the chief executive's
agenda on a sometimes slow but generally conscientious federal bureaucracy. And it shows how wealthy
people who help fund a president's election campaign get special access to the White House.
New
York Times on Solyndra: This Scandal Makes Republicans Look Bad, Right? [On November 24, 2011, the
New York Times] examined the Solyndra scandal and concluded Republicans are really off base for having the temerity
to complain about throwing taxpayer dollars down a rathole in the name of enriching big Democratic donors.
Deconstructing Solyndra.
The FBI raided Solyndra's California headquarters in early September a week after it announced its bankruptcy.
The nature of this investigation is not yet public, and it's not known when it will be — but reports
have said it could focus on accounting fraud and misleading federal officials about the finances of the company.
The Energy Department's inspector general is a partner in that investigation.
Green Energy Is Awash in Red Ink.
After blowing $528 million dollars in taxpayer support, Solyndra's 1,100 laid off workers will receive
$13,000 each in federal aid packages, including job retraining and income assistance. Since President Obama
extolled the virtues of clean solar energy, why is it that Solyndra could not make a profit in such a hot market?
Was this just crony capitalism or a photo opportunity for the White House to waste more taxpayer money?
The Solyndra Mess.
The Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee appear to have hit the pause button on their investigation
into the failure of Solyndra, a solar panel maker that entered bankruptcy proceedings in September, defaulting on
a $528 million federal loan. What have we learned? Nobody comes out of this looking good.
Steven
Chu Should Lose His Job Over The Solyndra Scandal. The Secretary of Energy takes responsibility
for and defends the granting of a half-billion-dollar-loan guarantee to an imploding solar panel maker.
But that's not where the campaign donor buck stopped.
Chu
offers no apology for fleecing taxpayers for Solyndra. People can debate all day whether government
should be in the business of picking winners and losers in the marketplace by selectively awarding loan guarantees.
What's beyond dispute is that any official decision that results in the loss of half-a-billion tax dollars should elicit
an apology from somebody in government. Just don't expect that somebody to be Secretary of Energy
Steven Chu...
Solyndra's
Bankruptcy and the Failure of 19th-century Steam Subsidies. The 19th-century steamship industry can be a
valuable lesson for the President and all the Washington corporatists who so adamantly push their "green" subsidies.
DOE's
Chu Takes Responsiblity for Solyndra Amid Charges of Unlawful Conduct. Today [11/17/2011]
embattled Energy Secretary Steven Chu finally ended his silence and took personal responsibility
for the controversial Soyndra loan amid congressional charges that he may have violated federal
laws. At the contentious hearing he repeatedly said he was unaware of many governmental emails
and reports that warned Solyndra was a bad bet. Chu testified under oath before a key House
Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee. He asserted "the final decisions on Solyndra were
mine" and that "I did not make any decision based on political considerations."
Energy
Secretary Steven Chu On Solyndra: Everything Was 'Proper'. On the eve of his appearance before
the House Energy and Commerce Committee to discuss the Solyndra bankruptcy, the Energy Department has provided
reporters with advance excerpts from Secretary Chu's prepared statement. The remarks indicate that Chu will
continue to defend the green energy loan guarantee program that gave the now-bankrupt solar panel company more
than $527 million in taxpayer dollars.
Energy Secretary Chu offers
no apologies for Solyndra. Energy Secretary Steven Chu made no apologies Thursday for the
$535 million loan guarantee the government made to now bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra, saying
the company's collapse was unforeseeable and politics did not play a role in the approval process.
Chu:
taxpayers won't recover much from Solyndra. Taxpayers shouldn't expect to recover much
money from bankrupt solar panel manufactuer Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee
from the Obama administration, Energy Secretary Steven Chu testified on Thursday [11/17/2011].
Energy
Dept. pushed firm to keep layoffs quiet until after midterms. The Obama administration urged
officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the
November 2010 midterm elections, newly released e-mails show. Solyndra, the now-shuttered California
company, had been a poster child of President Obama's initiative to invest in clean energies and received
the administration's first energy loan of $535 million.
Solyndra
Stonewall Breeched. No wonder the White House stonewalled on releasing Solyndra documents.
Last week's document dump is a lesson in why Washington has no business playing investment banker.
A
Chicago Politics Expansion of Executive Privilege. RINO Congressman Fred Upton of incandescent
light bulb ban fame, chairs the committee that subpoenaed Solyndra documents from the White House.
Claiming Executive Privilege and otherwise stalling, the White House refused to turn over Obama Blackberry and
other records that may be relevant to Mr. Obama's personal involvement in, or knowledge of, the Solyndra fiasco.
Instead of repudiating such an abuse of Executive Privilege, Upton agreed to limit the scope of his committee's
subpoena. The Friday dump of documents by the White House was therefore incomplete because Upton had
already caved.
Before
Solyndra, a long history of failed government energy projects. Solyndra, the solar-panel maker that
received more than half a billion dollars in federal loans from the Obama administration only to go bankrupt this
fall, isn't the first dud for U.S. government officials trying to play venture capitalist in the energy industry.
The Clinch River Breeder Reactor. The Synthetic Fuels Corporation. The hydrogen car. Clean coal.
These are but a few examples spanning several decades — a graveyard of costly and failed projects.
Troubles
grow for Auburn Hills solar company. Energy Conversion Devices Inc., the solar energy products
manufacturer once hailed by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm and visited by President George W. Bush, could be
headed toward bankruptcy. The Auburn Hills-based company this week halted production because it has too
much inventory, furloughing 400 manufacturing workers at United Solar Ovonic plants. It also plans to
lay off another 500 employees by year's end, adding to the 300 laid off in May.
Solyndra
e-mails show Obama fundraiser discussed lobbying White House. A major Obama fundraiser strategized
with one of his associates last year about how to get White House and Energy Department assistance for a solar
company in which his family funds had a substantial interest, according to e-mails released Wednesday [11/9/2011] by
House Republicans.
Sorry,
liberals, but Solyndra is a real scandal. When it was reported that Obama fundraiser and
top Solyndra fundraiser George Kaiser met at the White House on multiple occasions, top White House officials
asserted "the White House now firmly believes that [Solyndra investor and Obama fundraiser George] Kaiser
never broached the subject of the Solyndra loan," in the words of ABC's Matthew Mosk. Kaiser said
Solyndra never came up in these meetings. New emails show that the subsidized bankrupt politically
connected solar panel company was a topic of meetings when Kaiser and his lieutenants met at the White
House. In fact, Kaiser & crew used their access to the White House to push for taxpayer subsidies.
The Great Stonewall of Obama. During
another trademark Friday news dump, the White House revealed that it would fight a GOP House subpoena for internal
documents related to the half-trillion-dollar, stimulus-funded, now-bankrupt Solyndra solar energy loan bust.
White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler fumed that the information request placed an "unreasonable burden on the
president's ability to meet his constitutional duties." ... While she paints the request as a last-minute
surprise, the White House has been stonewalling on Solyndra all year long.
Executive
privilege claim ahead on Solyndra. On Friday, citing "longstanding and important Executive Branch
confidentiality interests," White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler refused a House panel's demand for "all
communications among White House staff and officials" relating to Solyndra. Solyndra is one of the
administration's pet "green energy" firms.
The smell of cover-up in
the morning. Solyndra is rich in material, now turbocharged by White House stonewalling.
Solyndra
Execs Leave With Cash — Yours. At The Corner, Andrew Stiles notes a report from Green Technology
that Solyndra's executives substantial bonuses shortly before their company declared bankruptcy, having
run out of your money. The taxpayers likely will be stuck with a $530 million bill.
WH
rejects subpoena request for Solyndra docs. President Obama's attorney sent a letter to Congressional
investigators on Friday [11/4/2011], saying the White House would not cooperate with a subpoena requesting documents
related to its doling out a $535 million loan guarantee to now bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.
Look
at What the Government Has Done with Your Money. The feds have gambled with your money again,
and they've lost it again; this time with a company called Beacon Power. You've probably never heard
of this company. Candidly, before the announcement of its bankruptcy filing this week, neither had I.
Just as you probably had never heard of Solyndra before its bankruptcy, neither had I. But your
government has heard of both.
House
committee subpoenas White House for more Solyndra documents. The Republican-controlled House
Energy and Commerce Committee voted to issue a broad subpoena demanding more documents from the White House
as part of the committee's ongoing investigation into a government loan guarantee to the failed solar equipment
maker Solyndra.
House
subpoenas White House for Solyndra documents. Showing a growing frustration with the the Obama
administration, congressional Republicans on Thursday [11/3/2011] authorized their second subpoena this week,
demanding White House documents related to failed solar technology company Solyndra. By a 14-9 party-line
vote the Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative subcommittee authorized issuing a subpoena for any White
House documents related to Solyndra, which received renewable energy loan guarantees under President Obama's
stimulus program. The request for documents could include details of the president's own travel and
communications.
Poll: End Solyndra-style loans.
In the wake of taxpayers being left on the hook for a half-billion-dollar loan to a company controlled by a
billionaire fund-raiser for Barack Obama, a new poll by the Tarrance Group shows that 72% of likely voters oppose
having the federal government choosing which companies within a certain industry will receive financial subsidies.
Jobs
Panel Member Whose Solar Firm Won Loan Guarantees Raises 'Conflict of Interest' Concerns. A
clean-energy firm led by a member of President Obama's jobs council has a stake in projects that have reaped
nearly $2 billion in loan guarantees from Washington, a case that has raised conflict-of-interest concerns
as the same jobs council pushes for more "government-backed" investment in renewable energy.
Solar
panels swindle. The [Feed-in Tariff] scheme was introduced by the last Labour government in order
to encourage a huge switch to green energy in an attempt to hit its target of reducing Britain's carbon emissions
by 80 per cent by 2050. These green energy levies are costing the normal homeowner dear, adding
nine per cent to our energy bills this year, according to the industry regulator Ofgem. Millions of ordinary
consumers, to put it bluntly, are therefore having their pockets picked to pay for the latest government eco folly.
Beacon
Power: Firm feds aided files for bankruptcy. Beacon Power Corp., an energy storage company that
received $43 million in backing from the U.S. program that supported failed Fremont solar panel manufacturer
Solyndra, filed for bankruptcy after struggling to raise private financing. The money-losing company, which
makes flywheels that manage energy moving through a power grid, had sought to avoid the fate of Solyndra, which
entered bankruptcy last month after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from a U.S. Department of
Energy program designed to spur alternative energy development.
Second
Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt. A Massachusetts company that received a $43 million
Energy Department loan guarantee last year filed for bankruptcy Sunday [10/30/2011], a step certain to fuel criticism
of federal green energy financing in the wake of the solar company Solyndra's collapse. Beacon Power Corp.,
which develops energy storage systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
The Editor says...
Name one government office in your area that's open on Sunday. If you were to file for bankruptcy, wouldn't
you have to wait until Monday morning?
Beacon Power
bankrupt; had U.S. backing like Solyndra. Beacon Power Corp filed for bankruptcy on Sunday just
a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial U.S.
Department of Energy program.
White
House official stays mum on Solyndra subpoena compliance. White House senior adviser David Plouffe
on Sunday [10/30/2011] would not say whether the White House will comply with an upcoming subpoena for internal
communications on the $535 million federal loan guarantee to the solar company Solyndra. "I am not
going to comment on a subpoena if it has not been issued," Plouffe said on NBC's Meet the Press [10/30/2011].
Professor Obama's Investing
101. It appears that much of the $36 billion earmarked for alternative energy firms, including
$500 million to Solyndra alone, has been squandered. If that money had stayed in the private sector, it
would have produced jobs. As it is, with real unemployment running at 20%, the president has wasted billions
on companies that were destined to fail. That "investment" produced nothing except more debt and slower
economic growth.
House
GOP may subpoena White House on Solyndra. The political battle over the now bankrupt solar-power
firm Solyndra will escalate this week when House Republicans move to subpoena the White House for any internal
documents related to the failed firm's government loan. Lawmakers said the subpoenas are necessary because
the Obama administration has repeatedly denied their requests for the information.
The Solyndra Scandal Advances.
There's nothing new about government loans and loan guarantees being used as special interest pay-offs and tossed
down one of Washington's famous rat-holes. Of course, the administration has denied anything amiss with the
$535 million loan from the Energy Department to now bankrupt Solyndra. Alas, this surely is not the
only example of taxpayer funds wasted on inefficient "green energy" which will never be recovered.
Obama
Administration Pushing for Solar Projects on Public Lands. The President and his team of green,
leftist, big-government zealots learned absolutely nothing from the Solyndra debacle, and they're not even a
little bit ashamed of it. They are going to unabashedly continue to distribute other people's money
where they see fit and create the new green society of the future even if they have to tank the entire economy
to do it.
CEO
of Tempe-based First Solar resigns. Tempe-based First Solar Inc.'s stock crashed
Tuesday [10/25/2011] after news that Chief Executive Rob Gillette was departing, prompting concern
among analysts that trouble could be brewing at the once high-flying solar-panel maker.
First Solar ousts
CEO, shares at 4½-year low. First Solar Inc's board ousted CEO Rob Gillette, replacing
him on an interim basis with Chairman Mike Ahearn while the solar panel maker searches for a new leader to
steer it through a treacherous time in the industry. First Solar gave no reason for Gillette's departure,
which intensified fears that its performance has faltered as it faces increasingly cutthroat competition.
Top 10 Bad Signs for Obama. [#3]
Solyndra: The bankrupt solar-panel firm, which wasted half-a-billion dollars of taxpayer money while the
White House was obsessed with a photo-op, is another scandal exploding at the worst time for Obama. Not
only does it raise questions about the President steering federal funds to political supporters, it makes Obama's
promise of a green-jobs revolution look hopelessly naïve.
Solyndra investigation heats up
with DOE interviews. The highest-ranking DOE official questioned to date by the Energy
and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee aides is Jonathan Silver, the former chief
operating officer of the Loan Program Office.
Solyndra-linked
fundraiser still boosting Obama campaign. Steven Spinner, a former Energy Department official
with ties to the failed solar company, continues to raise money for the president and help organize events.
Holding
Obama accountable on Solyndra. [Scroll down] EPACT did not create a citizen-suit provision
and it would be next to impossible for any one litigant to show the harm necessary to establish standing.
So it is unlikely Republicans can hold Obama accountable for breaking the law in court. But the Constitution
does provide other means for Congress to check Executive Branch lawlessness: impeachment. House
Republicans would not have to impeach Obama, just the highest ranking official(s) that knowingly broke the
law. Apparently, that just may be Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Taxpayers
Will Get $0 Return From Solyndra Auction. If you happen to be in the market for a "12-inch Variable
Speed Drill with Laser" or a "2 Ton Folding Hydraulic Shop Crane," you're in luck. If, on the other hand,
you are simply an American taxpayer hoping for some kind of return on the administration's ill-advised "investment"
in Solyndra, prepare to be disappointed.
Subsidies Have Consequences.
The trouble with the ruling class is that it doesn't have a clue about business. To an Obami like Jay Carney,
White House press secretary, the failure of corporate crony Solyndra is "just the way business works."
You win some, you lose some. Only, of course, the way business works is that when you lose, it's supposed
to be your money that gets lost.
The Bizarre
World of Radical Climate Science. People who are ignorant concerning engineering or science may
accept the notion that wind and solar are realistic sources of electricity. It is more difficult to
explain why the government is dumping billions of dollars into these technologies, both in the form of
cash and in the form of mandates that shift the cost to electricity users.
SunPower: Twice As Bad As Solyndra, Twice As Bad For
Obama. How did a failing California solar company, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits,
receive a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project — three
weeks after it announced it was building new manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the
project. The company, SunPower (SPWR-NASDAQ), now carries $820 million in debt, an amount $20 million
greater than its market capitalization. If SunPower was a bank, the feds would shut it down. Instead,
it received a lifeline twice the size of the money sent down the Solyndra drain.
Congressional
investigators try to deposition Solyndra loan memo author; DOE refuses. Congressional investigators
want to obtain transcribed interviews with Department of Energy officials involved with the Solyndra scandal,
including the author of the legal memo justifying the restructuring of the solar company's loan, but the DOE
has refused to submit, saying House Republicans don't have that authority.
Obama's "Rose Mary Woods" moment:
Busted:
DOE Altered Loan Program Bulletins. It appears as though the Obama administration has been caught
red-handed trying to cover up evidence in relation to the "green" loans programs that helped finance Solyndra.
CNBC reports that a number of press releases posted by the Department of Energy have been retroactively altered to
remove the name a solar company thought by many to be the next "green" failure. ... Naturally, the DOE blames
'outside contractors,' who "inadvertently" altered the news bulletins while updating the loans program website.
Solyndra and the IRS.
In November of 2009, in the midst of Solyndra's downward financial spiral, the Internal Revenue Service issued
a ruling that granted special tax favors to the firm and its customers. The "private letter" ruling
involving Solyndra, though widely discussed among tax lawyers, commented upon within the solar-power community,
and even flaunted by Solyndra itself, has received little attention in the mainstream media. A former
IRS official told National Review that the ruling raises a red flag about political interference in the tax
system. The source, who was not directly involved in the case, says that politicians have increased their
lobbying for private-letter rulings on behalf of individual taxpayers ever since the Democrats took over
Congress in 2007.
Solyndra Questions
for Obama. Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
heard testimony from top Treasury officials regarding the department's role in the Solyndra loan scandal.
More hearings are planned as investigators continue to shift through documents provided (reluctantly) by the
Obama administration. The most notable piece of evidence unveiled last week was a memo authored by the DOE
legal counsel defending the controversial decision to prioritize private inventors ahead of taxpayers with respect
to the first $75 million recovered in Solyndra's liquidation. But while it sheds some light on DOE's
dubious rationale in this case, the revelation appears to raise more questions than it answers.
Judge
denies bid by government for Solyndra trustee. Customer contracts figure prominently in the FBI's
criminal investigation of solar panel maker Solyndra LLC, which went bankrupt despite receipt of more than a
half-billion dollars in federal loans, according to testimony on Monday [10/17/2011].
Solyndra
won't talk about its contracts. Officials at failed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC refused to
discuss the company's contracts at a private meeting last month with a bankruptcy analyst for the Justice Department,
fueling the push to have a trustee take over the failed company during its bankruptcy, records show.
DOE in the
headlights. The Obama administration made $533 million disappear by giving it to a " green"
company named Solyndra. Next came a "green" company named SunPower that manufactured photovoltaic solar
panels. This time the money was upped to $1.2 billion of taxpayer money. This company was supposed
to manufacture photovoltaic solar panels for its California solar valley ranch. Amazingly it just happens
to be that the company had converted an old auto plant to a manufacturing plant for the panels. Guess where
the plant was located, of all things, in the Congressional District of a strong supporter, Rep. George Miller,
D.-Calif. Another surprise was that the lobbyist for SunPower just happened to be the son of Rep. Miller.
But of course that did not influence the senior Miller as he advocated for the loan.
Solyndra
CEO Resigns, Major Backer Delinquent on Taxes; Will Media Report?. Two more shoes dropped in the
Solyndra scandal today, but it remains to be seen their sound will stir the sleepy liberal lapdog media.
Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison resigned last Friday, the Associated Press reported early this afternoon [10/13/2011].
Oh, and while the media of late have cheerleading the Democratic push for a new surtax on millionaires, don't
expect the news media, particularly MSNBC, to note how a key Obama donor who pushed for the Solyndra loan has
been delinquent on his evaded federal taxes for years.
Kaiser
never mentioned Solyndra in White House visits, official says. While records show Tulsa oilman
George Kaiser visited the White House 16 times since 2009, an official who accompanied Kaiser says his
foundation's investment in a solar energy company never came up during the meetings.
The Editor says...
If you are dumb enough to believe that, you should not vote.
The most transparent and accountable administration in history announces...
White House won't turn over Obama's BlackBerry
messages on Solyndra. President Barack Obama won't be sharing his BlackBerry messages with House
investigators seeking communications about Solyndra, the White House told Hill Republicans on Friday [10/14/2011].
Energy
Secretary Chu to be questioned in Solyndra collapse. The top Republican and Democratic members
of a House subcommittee investigating the collapse of bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC after it received
more than a half billion dollars in federal loans agreed Friday to seek the testimony of Department of Energy
Secretary Steven Chu. The agreement came during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing over
increasing questions surfacing about the loan restructuring for Solyndra, which put taxpayers behind private
investors in case of a default. The deal was approved by the Energy Department earlier this year.
Solyndra Redux?
They say haste makes waste. But then, so does government. And when you combine the two you get a
real mess. Such was the case when the Department of Energy found itself with $4.75 billion in
unallocated loan guarantees as the stimulus loan program responsible for the Solyndra fiasco was ending at the
end of September. In the wake of the $535 million loan guarantee to a failing Solyndra whose major
investor was also a major Democratic donor, last-minute loans were given to First Solar, SunPower Corp. and
ProLogis. SunPower got a $1.2 billion guarantee. The question is why.
Obama's Top Solyndra Crony Claimed Zero Income.
There's a lot of talk about making the Evil Rich pay their "fair share" these days. President Obama
wants us to be very angry at the spectacle of billionaires escaping from confiscatory tax rates. ... It's
too bad Obama never rails against [Solyndra crony George] Kaiser, because the well-connected Oklahoma billionaire
reported zero taxable income during five years of his rise to the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest
Americans. In another year, he claimed on $11,699 in taxable income, which works out to $5.62 per hour.
Who
Besides Solyndra Got Loan Guarantees? [Scroll down] Most of the money has gone to enormous
companies that should have no trouble accessing capital. Established utilities, large multinational auto
manufacturers, a global warehouse owner. The bulk of these funds are not going to rectify some gap in the
capital markets. They're straight subsidies to huge corporations. Even some of the smaller firms/deals
are owned by large corporations like Total SA.
Another
Inside Man for Solyndra at the White House. The latest figure to emerge in Soylndra green-jobs
scandal is David Prend, a co-founder of the Boston-based venture capital firm Rockport Capital, who used his
role as a green energy adviser to the Obama administration to push for a half-billion-dollar subsidized loan
for Solyndra even though his company was a major investor in the solar-panel manufacturer.
Court
papers: Solyndra's CEO quietly resigned Friday. Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison resigned last Friday
[10/7/2011], new court papers filed Wednesday show. He did so quietly, and it's unclear whether the timing
was related to Obama administration Justice Department officials' request for someone other than company
executives to oversee Solynra's bankruptcy process.
Solyndra
boss quits as struggling company turns to celebrity bankruptcy trustee to lead. Solyndra's president and CEO
has called it quits, weeks after he stonewalled lawmakers when questioned about the struggling company.
Solar
Energy Lobby Calls For Extending Obama's Stimulus Grants for Solar Power. The head of the Solar
Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the trade association that advocates for the the solar energy industry,
said Wednesday [10/12/2011] that the solar industry is "rock-solid" and that a program included in President
Barack Obama's 2009 economic stimulus law that provides federal grants to the solar energy industry should be
extended. Under current law, the stimulus program is set to expire at the end of this year.
Solar
company Solyndra says its CEO resigned. The chairman and CEO of a California solar energy company
that sought bankruptcy protection after receiving a half-billion-dollar loan guarantee from the Obama administration
has resigned.
Shedding
Some Light on Solar Power. Solar power currently provides less than 0.07% of the United
State's electricity. So if we increased our solar power capacity by a hundred times, it
would still provide us with only 7% of our energy needs.
Oh, boy! Aren't they lucky!
Colorado
lands GE solar plant. Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to announce — possibly
as soon as Friday — that Colorado will be the site of a new General Electric manufacturing
plant for thin-film solar-power panels, four sources familiar with the matter said Thursday [10/13/2011].
Solyndra
funder Kaiser paid zero taxes for years. Because [Oklahoma billionaire George] Kaiser was a
campaign "bundler" — an individual who collects contributions to a candidate from others that are
then simultaneously given to the candidate — who raised about $250,000 for Obama during the 2008
campaign, congressional Republicans and media analysts have speculated that the Solyndra loan guarantee was
nothing more than using tax dollars to reward a political supporter.
Chicago's
solar panel deal quietly suspended. In March 2004, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley announced a
deal that promised to save taxpayer money, reduce natural gas consumption and bring "green" jobs to Chicago.
But taxpayers might see red when they learn how the deal turned out. More than seven years later, the
initiative has been quietly suspended amid problems with some of the equipment — and acknowledgements
by city officials that taxpayers will probably lose money on the deal and never realize the energy savings that
Daley touted ...
SunPower: Twice As Bad As Solyndra, Twice As Bad For
Obama. How did a failing California solar company, buffeted by short sellers and shareholder lawsuits,
receive a $1.2 billion federal loan guarantee for a photovoltaic electricity ranch project -- three weeks
after it announced it was building new manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico, to build the panels for the
project. The company, SunPower (SPWR-NASDAQ), now carries $820 million in debt, an amount $20 million
greater than its market capitalization.
A
Solar Flare For The White House. On Friday, while most of America was preparing for the weekend
and not paying attention to the news, the government released a batch of Solyndra emails. They showed that
Treasury Department and Office of Management and Budget officials were concerned about the Energy Department's
giving Solyndra more money even after the failed company had defaulted on its $535 million government loan.
Specifically, the officials worried that the plan was putting Solyndra investors before taxpayers, a violation
of federal law.
Solyndra: Incompetence or
Corruption? The current controversy surrounding the bankruptcy of Solyndra, the Obama administration's
green energy albatross, may be reaching critical mass. In yet another late Friday release of information,
a time-honored strategy designed to minimize media coverage of unpleasant truths, the White House has sent
Congressional investigators another 2000 pages of emails. Emails which implicate officials at the highest
levels of seniority within the administration.
The Real
Problem with Solyndra. The Washington Establishment's faith in the power and expertise of
government knows no limits. When given nearly unchecked power and money, bureaucrats and political
appointees will use taxpayer money however they please, even if they recognize they do it poorly.
Right now, it is Solyndra. But until we get our government out of the daily ins-and-outs of the
private sector, we can expect similar boondoggles.
Solyndra:
Obama's Solar Slush Fund. Newly released communications regarding the loan approval for Solyndra,
the now failed California solar energy company, show direct intervention by an Energy Department adviser and
Obama campaign fundraiser, and raise new questions of possible involvement by Rahm Emanuel and the President.
As more is learned, it becomes increasingly clear that the Administration used the Stimulus, and specifically
the green energy loan program, as a campaign slush fund to distribute billions of dollars like party favors to
supporters and to grandstand for re-election to a perceived constituency.
E-Mail
Shows Senior Energy Official Pushed Solyndra Loan. A senior Energy Department official pushed
hard for the government's $535 million loan to the now-bankrupt California solar energy company Solyndra
even after he had disclosed that his wife's law firm represented the company and he had promised to recuse
himself from matters related to the loan application, according to e-mails provided to Congressional
investigators by the administration.
Obama fundraiser
pushed Solyndra loan. An Energy Department adviser and former fundraiser for President Barack Obama
pushed for a California solar company to receive a half-billion federal loan, despite pledging to recuse himself
because his wife's law firm represented the company, newly released emails show.
Obama
Fundraiser Pushed Solyndra Deal From Inside. An elite Obama fundraiser hired to help oversee the
administration's energy loan program pushed and prodded career Department of Energy officials to move faster
in approving a loan guarantee for Solyndra, even as his wife's law firm was representing the California solar
company, according to internal emails made public late Friday [10/7/2011].
Doubling
Down On Solyndra. After the bad Solyndra "bet," the administration paused not a second to examine
how it went bad or to reconsider a process demonstrably flawed and corrupted. Perhaps because as far as
"green energy" projects go, the [Obama] administration seems to have a gambling addiction. Solyndra wasn't
the only bad bet. It was the third U.S. solar manufacturer to fail in a month. SpectraWatt Inc., a
solar company backed by units of Intel Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group, filed for bankruptcy protection Aug. 19,
and Evergreen Solar went Chapter 11 on Aug. 15.
Solar panels don't work well.
Solar companies are duping the public. Solar panels do not work as advertised. This comes not from coal
executive but from Ray Burgess, who just happens to be the president and CEO of Solar Power Technologies, a
Texas-based solar monitoring company that has developed a wireless mesh network to collect data from solar
systems. Solar panels are inefficient and degrade rapidly. And even if they did work, they would
not help the environment as much as proponents say solar energy will.
Solyndra:
A bad bet Obama should regret. Once the Obama administration's paragon of a clean-energy future,
Solyndra has gone bankrupt, taking a $527 million Energy Department-guaranteed loan with it. President
Obama, however, has no regrets.
Huge
Email Dump Implicates Obama And Rahm In Bankruptcy Scandal. The White House released a bunch of
emails related to the Solyndra bankruptcy scandal to Congressional investigators today, in what has become a
regular Friday evening email dump. The emails, obtained by several news organizations, implicate the
most senior levels of the Obama administration in the scandal, which has tainted the White House since the
solar company went bankrupt last month, leaving taxpayers on the hook for a $534 billion federal loan.
Solyndra loan supported by Obama fundraiser.
A prominent 2008 Barack Obama fundraiser who held a key role in the Energy Department played an active part in
Solyndra's $535 million loan guarantee despite conflict of interest concerns over his wife's work at a law
firm that also represented the California solar company, according to internal Obama administration emails
released Friday [10/7/2011]. Steve Spinner's involvement in the Solyndra loan had been difficult to
determine until the release of hundreds of emails on Friday included some showing the Silicon Valley energy
consultant engaged in a range of high-level roles while at DOE.
Energy
Department Official in Charge of Solyndra Loan Program to Step Down. The director of the
controversial loan program that cleared the way for a $535 million taxpayer guarantee to bankrupt solar
firm Solyndra is stepping down, the Energy Department confirmed Thursday. Jonathan Silver, head of the
Loan Programs Office, plans to join the organization Third Way as a "distinguished visiting fellow."
The career change comes in the middle of heavy scrutiny from Congress over the department's handling of the
Solyndra agreement.
The Editor says...
One minor scapegoat is not enough. Somebody higher up needs to step down, too.
Newt: Fire Chu. Finally someone
in the Republican presidential sweepstakes is saying what needs to be said: Fire Energy Secretary David
Chu. ... On Chu's watch, the Department of Energy co-signed for a $535 million loan to a company that
promised to make solar panels in the most expensive way possible using the most expensive materials available
for a market already glutted with cheap foreign competitors. The loan was used to build a second factory
to expand Solyndra's ability to make solar panels no one was buying. This made no sense, yet Chu signed
off on the loan.
The Editor says...
That's all very good, but I think the man's name is Dr. Steven Chu, not David Chu. Am I wrong?
Update:
Yes he is Dr. Steven Chu, and the article has been corrected.
Race to impeach: Solyndra or Fast and Furious?
Two evolving scandals are neck to neck in the race to impeach President Obama. While Fast and
Furious — the ATF gun-running for Mexican drug lords — is the more imaginative of the two
scandals, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
Chairman Cliff Stearns are following the money on Solyndra.
E-mails show Energy Department was moving toward second loan for Solyndra.
Newly released e-mails show the Obama administration's Energy Department was poised to give Solyndra a second
taxpayer loan of $469 million last year, even as the company's financial situation grew increasingly dire.
The department was still considering providing the second loan guarantee to the solar-panel manufacturer in April
and May 2010, at a time when Solyndra's auditors were already warning that the company was in danger of collapsing.
A New Study Takes The Wind Out Of Wind Energy.
Facts are pesky things. And they're particularly pesky when it comes to the myths about the wind energy
business. For years, it's been an article of faith among advocates of renewables that increased use of
wind energy can provide a cost-effective method of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The reality:
wind energy's carbon dioxide-cutting benefits are vastly overstated. Furthermore, if wind energy does
help reduce carbon emissions, those reductions are too expensive to be used on any kind of scale. Those
are the findings of an exhaustive new study, released today [7/19/2011], by Bentek Energy, a Colorado-based
energy analytics firm.
Solyndra
Loan Program on Pace to Commit Equivalent of $6M Per Permanent Job. As the Energy Department
moves to finalize the last remaining loan guarantees from a controversial clean-energy fund, the federal
government is on pace to put up more than $6 million for every permanent job saved or created by the
program. As of late Friday afternoon [9/30/2011], the program that doled out money to now-bankrupt
solar firm Solyndra has backed up $16 billion in clean-energy loans.
Solyndracracy.
In happier times, the firm had been celebrated as a harbinger of the future. The political connections
it enjoyed were the fruit not only of well-placed contributions but of a self-imposed ideological mission:
It was going to deliver cheap energy in amazing ways. Top executives had dismissed accounting
irregularities. The normal rules, it was said, did not apply.
The
Administration's Expanding Scandals. When a presidency is experiencing a political collapse, as
is happening now, the last thing it needs is to face serious legal and ethical problems. But that is
precisely where the Obama administration finds itself with both the Solyndra story and the so-called Fast and
Furious program. It's clear that at a minimum, the Obama administration has given a misleading account of
both matters.
Did someone
mention the Fast and Furious scandal?
Energy
official praised Solyndra before FBI bust. A top Department of Energy official in charge of the
office that awarded Solyndra LLC $535 million in loan guarantees insisted the company was "headed in the
right direction" months before the firm went bankrupt and saw its offices raided by the FBI.
A Company
"by the name of Solyndra". In the course of following the unfolding Solyndra scandal there was
one small detail that piqued my suspicions but which I hadn't had time to chase down further. It
concerns the Obama donor and Solyndra investor George Kaiser, who made numerous trips to the White House
while the loan guarantee was in process, meeting with senior White House staff. ... If Kaiser ever appears
before a congressional committee — or a grand jury — he should certainly be pressed
about whether the "charitable activities" discussed at the White House included his foundation's investment in
Solyndra.
Spiking
Solyndra: Big Three Networks Barely Mention Burgeoning Scandal. Energy Secretary Steven Chu's
admission, on Thursday, that he approved more taxpayer money to the financially strapped solar panel company
Solyndra, after it defaulted on a $535 million loan from that agency. Big Three network coverage?
Zero. This is just a continuing pattern of ABC, CBS and NBC barely touching the bourgeoning scandal for
the Obama administration.
DOE
approves $4.7 billion more in solar loan guarantees. The solar industry is in a recession
brought about by what is almost certainly illegal dumping of photovoclaic cells by the Chinese on the
American market.
GOP's
Solyndra probe threatens to ensnare Energy Secretary Chu. Republican lawmakers have set their
sights on Chu, who for three years has managed to avoid being dragged into a litany of political battles
waged by Republicans and the White House on energy and environmental issues.
What's the rush?
Energy
Department approves $4.7 billion in solar loan guarantees. The Energy Department finalized
Friday more than $4.7 billion in loan guarantees for four solar projects, bringing an embattled
stimulus-law program aimed at financing renewable energy projects to a close. The approvals come amid
objections from House Republicans, who have alleged that the department was rushing to finalize the loan
guarantees before the program expired Friday.
Solargate
Opens Wide. It turns out a recent recipient of the administration's largesse is from the House of
Pelosi. The green energy scandal keeps picking up speed.
Obama
still silent on brewing Solyndra debacle. President Obama has remained silent weeks after a
green-energy firm that received a more than $500 million loan from his administration went bust,
avoiding a brewing controversy on Capitol Hill even as new details trickle out about the firm facing
multiple investigations by Congress and the Justice Department.
FBI
Said to Be Probing Solyndra for Possible Account Fraud. The FBI is investigating Solyndra LLC
for possible accounting fraud and the accuracy of financial representations made to the government, according
to an agency official. ... The company's offices in Fremont, California, were raided by Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents on Sept. 8. The Justice Department hasn't said why Solyndra is being probed.
Green
Energy Industry Staggers. As the Energy Department hustled to get another $4.7 billion in
loan guarantees for green tech companies out the door before time ran out and the program ended last week, yet
another solar panel manufacturer was wilting in the sun, and the green jobs scam was looking more threadbare
than ever.
More solar companies led by Democratic donors received federal loan
guarantees. A Daily Caller investigation has found that in addition to the failed company
Solyndra, at least four other solar panel manufacturing companies receiving in excess of $500 million in
loan guarantees from the Obama administration employ executives or board members who have donated large sums of
money to Democratic campaigns.
Exactly the opposite is true.
Acting
Commerce Secretary: 'U.S. Can't Afford' Not to Subsidize Green Tech. Acting Commerce Secretary
Rebecca Blank said that in a global race for green technology, the United States "can't afford" not to spend
taxpayer money on such projects, and that the price of that spending is an occasional failure. One of
those failures was a $535-million federal loan guarantee to the Solyndra company that makes solar panels but
which recently filed for bankruptcy.
SolarReserve
Wins $737 Million Guarantee for Solar Thermal Plant. SolarReserve LLC, a closely held renewable
energy developer, received a $737 million U.S. Energy Department loan guarantee to build a solar-thermal
project in Nevada. ... Lawmakers in Washington are scrutinizing the Energy Department's program in the wake
of Solyndra LLC's Sept. 6 bankruptcy filing.
DOE
Mulls Green Energy Loans At $20 Million Per Job. The Energy Department on Wednesday approved
federal loan guarantees for two green energy projects totaling more than $1 billion. It approved
$337 million for a Mesquite Solar project in Arizona and $737 million for a Solar Reserve project in
Nevada. The projects would create a total of 52-55 permanent jobs, according to earlier DOE figures and
company statements. That's about $20 million per permanent job.
Politicizing Energy Independence.
Three years after energy independence and alternative energy measures had bipartisan support under the Bush
Administration, the Obama Administration has not only succeeded in politicizing alternative energy until it
became a divisive issue, but with the Solyndra scandal, it may have also tarred the entire alternative energy
field with another Enron.
Energy
Department approves $1 billion in solar energy loan guarantees. The Energy Department announced
Wednesday [9/28/2011] that is has finalized more than $1 billion in loan guarantees for two separate
solar energy projects. ... DOE announced a $737 million loan guarantee to help finance construction of
the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a 110-megawatt solar-power-generating facility in Nye County, Nev.
The project is sponsored by Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve.
The solar swindle:
Bosses at solar panel manufacturer Solyndra are busy taking the Fifth, and Obama administration officials
are pleading ignorance over how an unsustainable enterprise was able to bag $535 million in taxpayer
loot. In the coming days, Congress is likely to get to the bottom of exactly who knew what and when.
GOP
lawmaker demands independent probe into Solyndra. A Republican on the House Energy and
Commerce Committee is calling on the White House to appoint an independent investigator to examine the
administration's decision to approve a $535 million loan guarantee for a now-bankrupt solar company.
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said the Obama administration should have quickly appointed a special
investigator to look into Solyndra...
Solyndra:
What the President Knew and When He Knew It. According to an investigation by the Los Angeles
Times, President Obama was warned nearly a year ago that Energy Secretary Stephen Chu's department was not
rigorous enough in vetting loan recipients and they ran the risk of funneling federal money to companies that
shouldn't receive it, or didn't need it. And the warnings came from the President's top economic advisers
Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner.
Solyndra's
$733M Plant Had Robots, Spa Showers. It wasn't just any factory. When it was
completed at an estimated cost of $733 million, including proceeds from a $535 million U.S. loan
guarantee, it covered 300,000 square feet, the equivalent of five football fields. It had robots
that whistled Disney tunes, spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature, and
glass-walled conference rooms.
Is
There a Dirty Side to Clean Green Solar Energy? Should Solyndra worry about a Chicago style set-up
from the Obama Administration, and should they protect themselves by requesting a special prosecutor?
Obama's
Cabinet Does The Hokey Pokey. In May 2009, Secretary Chu put his hands all over the Solyndra
loan which he said would be a model for what the government creation of "green" jobs. Chu attended the
ground breaking with President Obama and cited Solyndra's example in his speeches. Yet, now, with
Solyndra's mind-boggling profligacy, squandering $523 million in taxpayer money in less than two years
and filing for bankruptcy protection, both Chu and Obama are eager to take their hands off...
A Total
Eclipse of Solyndra. On Friday [9/23/2011], Solyndra execs Brian Harrison and Bill Stover
invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. ... I thought the execs did the smart thing.
Harrison and Stover have nothing to gain by talking, because there's no good way to explain how they blew close to
a half-billion in taxpayer money. Besides, they didn't need to talk when committee Democrats were so
willing to toss around a few mitigating factors...
Venture socialism.
Government officials rushed $535 million to Solyndra because the Obama administration was determined
to make the company the centerpiece of its green agenda regardless of the law of supply and demand.
Billions more have been wasted by politicians betting on favored companies and making Washington bigger,
using the brute force of government to force liberal preferences into the economy. Mr. Obama calls
them "investments," but this is really venture socialism.
How
Did Solyndra Spend All That Money? It seems that in the space of two years, Solyndra managed to
spend $344 million building a factory and $660 million ... doing what?
545
Politicians & Judges Control Everything. What we have in Washington is a political three-ring
circus performing its various functions on the hugest pile of money ever assembled in one place in all of
human history. Indeed, there is so much money that there is no way that anyone can keep track of how it is
spent, or who gets what, or who steals what. Solyndra is just one small example of legal theft of a mere
half billion dollars.
President Solyndra.
The green energy lobby is probably hoping that Solyndra's failure can be portrayed as an isolated case of
illegal influence, lest it cast a shadow over the entire edifice of massive subsidies that green energy
requires to survive. But Solyndra is merely the most spectacular of several recent green energy
failures.
Solyndra: Dumb and crooked. If
anyone wonders what is wrong with America today, check out Solyndra. Its principal players were well-connected
politically — they knew the White House like the back of their grubby little paws — but
they did not know [much] about business. In the 19th century, Solyndra would have failed an no one would
have noticed. In the 21st century, taxpayers rewarded Solyndra with a half-billion dollars.
Solyndra: Obama's Marble
Boat. Because of the prejudice against fossil fuels in administration quarters, and undoubtedly
because so many Democrat fundraisers and lobbyists are lining their pockets on "green projects," the government,
which should not be providing debt capital for new tech energy start-ups, has jumped into this area, feet
first, and landed on its nose, at huge cost to us.
Taking the Fifth on
the Solyndra scandal. We know that the company applied for an Energy Department loan guarantee
in early 2007, was given a bad credit rating by Fitch in 2008, and was denied a loan by the Bush Energy
Department in January 2009. We also know that in March 2009, Oklahoma billionaire and Solyndra investor
George Kaiser, who raised more than $50,000 for President Obama's campaign, visited the White House four
times. We know that on March 29, 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Solyndra had been
awarded a $535 million loan guarantee.
California
Democratic Party among Solyndra's creditors. Out of the hundreds of out-of-work employees,
vendors, investors and other creditors in the bankruptcy of government-backed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC,
one name stands out: the California Democratic Party. Why California Democrats would be creditor
to a company that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans to build a solar-panel plant
isn't clear. Even party officials say they're not sure.
Obama Speech was "Obama
Unplugged". [Obama is] the fellow who lectured us yesterday about fighting for the middle class
"as hard as the lobbyists and some lawmakers have fought to protect special treatment for billionaires and big
corporations." This admonition comes from the same fellow who presides over a White House that inappropriately
pressured the Office of Management and Budget to approve half-billion dollars to a company, Solyndra, which
wasn't deserving of the money and has now gone belly up. The reason the money was fast-tracked and
funneled to Solyndra was because its chief investor, George Kaiser, is a significant fundraiser for Obama.
Kaiser, by the way, is a billionaire.
Lawyers
netted millions in solar loan deal. In the fallout of the collapse of solar-panel maker Solyndra
LLC — a company awarded more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans before it went bankrupt
late last month — members of Congress are demanding to know how all that money was spent.
Solyndra execs will decline
to testify at hearing. Solyndra LLC's chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke
their Fifth Amendment rights and decline to answer any questions put to them at a Congressional hearing on
Friday [9/23/2011], according to letters from their attorneys obtained by Reuters.
Solyndra
execs to take 5th, refuse to testify before House panel. Solyndra Inc.'s chief executive and
chief financial officer will invoke their 5th Amendment rights and not answer questions during a Friday
hearing before a House investigative committee, their attorneys said.
House
investigators rip Solyndra execs. Two members leading the Congressional investigation into bankrupt
solar energy firm Solyndra said the company's executives broke their promise to testify openly during a hearing
scheduled for this Friday, instead electing to exercise their Fifth amendment rights not to answer questions.
The
Solyndra Scandal and the Future of Green Energy. An investigation by the Energy and Commerce
Committee has revealed that, for political reasons, the White House rushed a $528 billion federal loan to
solar firm Solyndra, which went bankrupt two weeks ago. Taxpayers should be outraged. Not just
about Solyndra, but about the inherent corruption of government's entire push to pick winners and losers
in the energy sector, and micromanage the economy in general.
Solyndra Investor admits:
We
wanted the loan so we could 'go public and cash out'. A clearer picture of the underlying
insider scheme at Solyndra is beginning to emerge. Yuliya Chernova of the Wall Street Journal writes a
superb column today regarding all the business problems that beset the scandal plagued Solyndra. There
were a litany of engineering and business problems that were very apparent to everyone except, apparently, the
White House politicos that pressured career officials in the government to extend a 500 million dollar
loan guarantee.
Solyndra
scandal unraveling Obama's credibility. An Energy Department analysis of Solyndra's business model
performed two years ago predicted that the firm would run out of money in September 2011. But that fact
was ignored by the president and his political advisers who wanted a "green jobs" photo op, no matter the cost.
Kaiser Family Foundation 2009 grant sparks more Solyndra questions.
A Daily Caller review of the George Kaiser Family Foundation's income tax returns found that during the same
year billionaire investor George Kaiser successfully secured $535 million in government loan guarantees
for the now-failed solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, his private philanthropy donated to a political cause
close to the hearts of several high-ranking Obama administration officials. Kaiser, a major Obama donor,
was a frequent White House visitor during the week before the Obama administration approved that
taxpayer-underwritten financial deal.
FBI-targeted
solar company to put shine on law firm's wallet. U.S. taxpayers risk losing more than a half-billion
dollars from the collapse of solar-panel maker Solyndra Inc., but former Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld
and his associates stand to earn a windfall in fees representing the bankrupt company in coming months.
The Left's
Solyndra Damage Control. The latest batch of e-mails documenting the Obama administration's
involvement in a $535 million federal loan to bankrupt solar company Solyndra has liberals scrambling
to point fingers at an array of perceived villains.
Rahm Emanuel on
Solyndra: 'I don't remember'. Chicago mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
said he doesn't recall anything about the Obama administration's $535 million loan to the recently
bankrupt solar company Solyndra.
At least there's one bright side:
Fury
over Solyndra loan threatens to sunset solar energy investments. Political fury over a failed
$535 million loan guarantee to an Obama administration-backed solar company is threatening to poison the
well for future green investments.
[Investments? Really?
And
the Solyndra Scandal Reaches the West Wing. Andrew Stiles has a good round-up of the latest news
and e-mails that show the West Wing's interest in getting a quick approval of the Solyndra loan, over the
objections of OMB. This e-mail stands out: "We have ended up with a situation of having to do
rushed approvals on a couple of occasions (and we are worried about Solyndra at the end of the week)," one
official wrote."
Solyndra
scandal exposes the lie of government 'investment'. Beware of a company that claims it can make
widgets for $10 each, sell them for $8 apiece, and then "make up the losses on volume." No banker or
venture capitalist would invest in such a foolhardy scheme. But substitute "solar panels" for widgets
and that is exactly what Washington's professional politicians and career bureaucrats did with $535 million
in loan guarantees for Solyndra LLC, the now-bankrupt California company that was the centerpiece of President
Obama's "clean energy future."
Administration
officials grilled on Solyndra loan. Obama administration officials refused to say Wednesday [9/14/2011]
whether anybody would be fired over the decision to award solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra LLC a half-billion dollars
in loans before it went bankrupt and saw its headquarters raided by the FBI.
The
Government as Venture Capitalist. We've been posting on Solyndra since the date of its first loan
in 2009. The fact that nobody on any oversight committee, of either party, raised any serious objection
until now is a bigger problem than the Solyndra bankruptcy itself. Dear Congrees: What you're doing
now isn't oversight, it's grandstanding. If you can't find time to notice that a $535 million dollar
loan doesn't make any sense, then maybe the legislative branch of government isn't for you.
Obama
admin tries to blame Bush for Solyndra. As the Congressional hearing on the failed solar energy
manufacturer Solyndra gets under way, it's already clear that the Obama administration is prepared to fall
back on a tried and tested strategy: blaming Bush.
Stearns:
'Someone should be fired' over Solyndra bankruptcy. Republicans made it clear Wednesday that they
intend to continue shining a spotlight on the bankruptcy of a solar company that received a $535 million
loan guarantee from the Obama administration. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Energy
and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, even said he wants to see an administration
official fired over the incident.
Obama
administration marches forward with 'green' agenda despite Solyndra scandal. The Obama
administration continues to move forward with its "green" agenda, despite new concerns on the heels of a
high-profile bankruptcy in the solar-energy sector. More recently, approximately 500 Texans lost
their jobs Monday [9/12/2011] because of Environmental Protection Agency regulations on the energy industry.
And the president has offered no specific regulatory relief, other than a single ozone regulatory proposal
he nullified a few weeks ago.
The
Spreading Green Jobs Scam. As solar panel manufacturer Solyndra was sliding into a long-predicted
bankruptcy, Energy Department officials began negotiations with the company and two of its main investors about
restructuring its $535 million loan to keep afloat the business that was supposed to be a good investment.
Under the restructuring agreement, Solyndra's private investors were moved to the front of the line and taxpayers
were put on the hook for at least the first $75 million if the company should default. Subordinating
taxpayers to private investors in recovering loan money is an "apparent violation of the law," according to
Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Obama's
Solyndra scandal reeks of the Chicago Way. This is not a new kind of politics. It's the old
kind. The Chicago kind. And now the Tribune Washington Bureau has reported that the U.S. Department
of Energy employee who helped monitor the Solyndra loan guarantee was one of Obama's top fundraisers.
Barack Obama, Flim-Flam
Man. Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy has an important column in which he argues that
the Solyndra fiasco is not just a garden-variety scandal, but a criminal fraud that should land someone, inside
and/or outside of the Obama administration, in the slammer. ... The facts warrant a full-scale criminal
investigation.
Solyndra
Workers Looking for Non-Green Jobs. And if you needed more proof that "green" jobs are a myth,
the workers of Solyndra are applying for government assistance to learn a new trade: ["]Ex-employees of
the failed solar panel company Solyndra have applied for aid under the federal government's Trade Adjustment
Assistance program, the Labor Department has confirmed.["]
No, Bush Was Not Responsible For
Solyndra. It's true that the Solyndra loan application was filed during the Bush
years, and kicked around with varying levels of enthusiasm. Evidently proceeding on the
assumption that their remaining supporters are idiots, the Obama people just decided to leave
out the part of the story where the Bush team voted against the Solyndra loan, for precisely
the reasons Obama tried to cover up when he was pushing it through.
Tennessee's
solar industry faces clouded future. Hemlock Semiconductor's $1.2 billion plant rises up
like a new city over the trees and fields near Clarksville, Tenn. More than a dozen cranes dot the
skyline of towering arc furnaces and industrial buildings, linked by a network of pipes that grows by more
than a mile each week.
What
Did the MSM Know and When Did They Know It? When it comes to protecting democracy,
an over-zealous media is always preferable to a lapdog media so enamored with those in power that
they lose their curiosity, skepticism and willingness to dig or ask questions for fear of what
they might find.
ABC
Breaks, Then Ignores News on Obama White House Ties to Solyndra. On Tuesday
and Wednesday's World News, reporter Brian Ross exposed e-mails indicating that the Obama
administration gave a $535 million loan to the green company Solyndra, despite deep
misgivings inside the government about its viability. Yet, Good Morning America has
declined to follow-up on the ABC scoop.
Congress
Likely to Cram Down Solyndra Billionaire. Sources close to the Congressional
investigation into the loans that the Obama administration made to bankrupt solar company
Solyndra, say that Congress is likely to attempt to scuttle an agreement that the
administration reached last February that allowed major investors to take precedent over
US taxpayers in the liquidation of the company.
The
Solar Dole. Last week, Solyndra, which builds industrial solar panels in the Bay Area,
announced that it was filing for bankruptcy. The company, whose officials and investors visited
the White House at least 20 times and have donated to the Obama campaign, chewed through
1,100 employees and piles of other people's money, including $535 million provided by taxpayers,
before it finally succumbed to reality.
Obama
Lied, Solyndra Died. The Obama administration is joined at the hip to Solyndra,
the company that in happier days manufactured solar panels. The Obama administration
touted Solydra as a model. According to Obama, Solyndra pointed the way to the future.
It served as the administration's flagship example of using taxpayers' money to boost clean
energy manufacturing and create jobs.
What's
exactly happened with the government's Solyndra loan? Under the Bush administration,
the Department of Energy rejected Solyndra for a loan in early 2009, worrying that the company didn't
have good long-term prospects. Yet only two months later, Obama's newly appointed Energy
Secretary Steven Chu announced the government would give the company a $535 million
loan, funded with money from the stimulus.
Solyndra
Not the Only Firm to Hit Rock Bottom Despite Stimulus Funding. Solyndra, the solar
panel company whose highly publicized failure and consequent investigation by federal authorities
has flashed across headlines recently, isn't the only business to go belly up after benefiting from
a piece of the $800 billion economic stimulus package passed in 2009. At least four other
companies have received stimulus funding only to later file for bankruptcy, and two of those were
working on alternative energy.
Despite
controversy, White House doubling down on clean energy loans. The Energy
Department (DOE) is not backing down in its efforts to support clean energy companies, despite
Republicans pummeling the Obama administration for approving a $535 million loan guarantee
to a now-bankrupt solar firm. The department could approve as many as 15 renewable energy
loan guarantees by the end of the month when a program launched under the stimulus law ends.
The
Solyndra saga. We know the Obama administration can't get enough of renewable energy.
We know it can't get enough of "shovel-ready" projects for soaking up its taxpayer-funded economic
stimulus handouts. Now a colossal green stimulus failure has put Democrats on the defensive
and raised the prospect of an ugly scandal.
Solargate Unraveled.
Corruption is not an energy policy. Emails released to the Washington Post before Wednesday's
hearings on the $535 million stimulus loan guarantee issued to now-bankrupt Solyndra Inc. reveal
the extent of, and resistance to, White House pressure to get the loan approved so Vice President Joe
Biden could announce it at a Sept. 4, 2009, groundbreaking event. The White House has denied
applying pressure or even monitoring the review process, saying the stimulus loan guarantee was a good
"investment."
Don't Bet on Green.
No legislator would seriously suggest that a roulette wheel be employed to dig California out of
its financial mess. Yet elected officials routinely gamble with taxpayer money. Lawmakers
don't bet on red or black. They bet on green. ... We now know that Solyndra was a $535-million
bad bet. The money gambled and lost at the federal level is now being traced by forensic
accountants using government resources.
Solyndra,
the logical endpoint of Obamanomics. Obama claimed his election would mark "the
moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." But that
was just the cover story. At its core, Obamanomics is about the top-down redistribution
of wealth and income. Government spending on various "green" subsidies and programs, along
with a cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions, would enrich key Democrat constituencies:
lawyers, public sector unions, academia and non-profits.
Solyndra:
The Green Bay Of Pigs? It seems that Uncle Sam's Mickey Mouse loan deal to the
now-bankrupt solar manufacturer Solyndra was not only a bad investment decision, but likely a
contributing factor to the company's implosion. ... The loan, it appears, bought a factory
that was too large, too expensive, and ill-suited for the market.
'Solargate'
Didn't Happen By Accident. After Stimulus I was passed in 2009 the White House
wanted to champion so-called "green jobs." So, they set out to find an energy company to become
the "poster-child" for their efforts — a company that they could offer loan guarantees to
as proof of their investment and commitment to "clean" energy.
Obama
abused the public trust to fund pet solar firm. [President Obama] stood before the
nation and asked for hundreds of billions of dollars in further stimulus, even as Americans learned
one of the many ways in which the first batch of $859 billion was squandered. Taxpayers
deserve to know how and why Obama wasted their money on Solyndra. They deserve to know whether
it has anything to do with the fact that George Kaiser, a major Obama bundler, was the company's largest
corporate investor. They need to know whether that has anything to do with the extraordinary
agreement the Energy Department made, allowing private investors like Kaiser to be made whole before
the government in the event of bankruptcy.
The
Solyndra Fraud. The Solyndra debacle is not just Obama-style crony socialism as
usual. It is a criminal fraud. That is the theory that would be guiding any competent
prosecutor's office in the investigation of a scheme that cost victims — in this case,
American taxpayers — a fortune. Fraud against the United States is one of the most
serious felony offenses in the federal penal law. It is even more serious than another apparent
Solyndra violation that has captured congressional attention: the Obama administration's
flouting of a statute designed to protect taxpayers.
Obama's
Solar Scandal. Solyndra. That's the name of a company that manufactured solar
panels in Fremont, Calif. (which voted 71 percent for Obama in 2008). It was the first
company to receive a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy as part of the 2009 stimulus
package. This wasn't small potatoes. The loan guarantee was for $535 million.
Solyndra
Nation. To find a metaphor for the failed Obama presidency, look no further
than Solyndra. ... "Keep up the good work!" wrote an administration official to a Solyndra
executive last May. "We're cheering for you." That was before the bankruptcy
filing. Before the 1,100 lost jobs and the empty 650,000-square-foot production facility
in Fremont, California. Before the FBI raid of Solyndra headquarters. Before the
House Energy Committee released emails suggesting the Solyndra loan was rushed and improperly
vetted. These days the White House is tight-lipped. The only cheering comes from
Republicans sensing a possible Obama scandal.
Obama
admin reworked Solyndra loan to favor donor. The Obama administration restructured
a half-billion dollar federal loan to a troubled solar energy company in such a way that private
investors — including a fundraiser for President Barack Obama — moved ahead
of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show.
Obama's
Pet Billionaire at Solyndra. A high profile, politically well-connected California
solar energy company that had won a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama Administration
declared bankruptcy earlier this month and closed its doors sending 1100 workers to the unemployment
line. The demise of Solyndra has already sparked an FBI investigation, congressional hearings,
and raised numerous questions of political cronyism and corruption connected to the highest
levels of the Obama Administration.
Emails
Reveal Direct White House Tie to Solyndra Scandal. Yesterday [9/13/2011], ABC
News dropped the bombshell that Bush era Energy auditors actually nixed the loan as unsound,
nd that Obama OMB staffers raised similar concerns upon their own evaluation. The White
House's political team seemed to disagree, putting the deal on a "fast track." Mere days
later, the massive government loan to the unstable "green" poster-child — backed by
major Obama donor cash — was fortuitously approved.
FBI
raids solar panel company hailed by Obama. FBI agents executed search warrants Thursday
[9/8/2011] at the California headquarters of Solyndra LLC, which was awarded more than $500 million
in federal stimulus loans in 2009 to make solar panels in what the Obama administration called part of
an aggressive effort to put more Americans to work and end U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
Feds
Raid Homes of Solyndra CEO, Execs. Federal agents have expanded their examination of the
now-bankrupt California solar power company Solyndra, searching the homes of the company's CEO and two
of its executives, examining computer files and documents, iWatch News and ABC News have learned.
FBI serves
search warrants at Solyndra. FBI agents served search warrants this morning at Solyndra, the
Fremont solar company that abruptly closed last week, two years after receiving more than $500 million
in federal stimulus money, an agency official said. The search is part of a joint investigation
involving the FBI and the Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General, said FBI spokeswoman
Julianne Sohn, who declined to elaborate.
This
Week in Climate News. Ho-hum, another day, another solar power company in bankruptcy,
this time in down in Australia, and for the same reason: the subsidies ran out. Instead
of calling it "green energy," maybe we should just start calling it "socialist energy" because it
has the same flaw: sooner or later you run out of other people's money.
Solyndra
officials made numerous trips to the White House, logs show. Not only does the
now-bankrupt solar energy firm Solyndra have a cozy financial relationship with the Obama
administration, company representatives also made numerous visits to the White House to meet
with administration officials, The Daily Caller has learned. According to White House
visitor logs, between March 12, 2009, and April 14, 2011, Solyndra officials and
investors made no fewer than 20 trips to the West Wing.
Green Pigs Don't Fly.
Reportedly, Obama's jobs speech will focus on infrastructure spending, and much of that spending will
undoubtedly be tied to the creation of "green jobs." The problem is, what he has already spent
has not created jobs. According to the Heritage Foundation, it may well have cost jobs. It
has, however, enriched some of his wealthiest political contributors. And that seems to be the
real motive behind the president's infrastructure spending. Not green jobs, but green pork.
The
Watermelon Regime's Pay-to-Play Way. The recent domino-like downfall of a slew of solar
energy companies is shedding light on both the failure and corruption inherent in green politics.
Most prominently in the news was the bankruptcy of Solyndra LLC, a Fremont, California-based manufacturer
of solar panels.
SolarGate.
A top bundler and major investor in a now-bankrupt green company made multiple White House visits before
he got a guaranteed stimulus loan that the administration monitored to ensure it was granted.
Solyndra
solar plant closes; $535 million vanishes. This ought to be the top story on every news outlet
nationwide, and ought to be the death knell for the "Stimulus" concept and for the "green jobs" fallacy.
But I get the feeling the MSM will bury it.
Sunburned.
Solyndra, a manufacturer of solar panels, is bankrupt, which is inconvenient for the Obama
administration, which extended half a billion dollars' worth of loan guarantees to the firm as part
of the president's stimulus effort. The inconvenience extends to the 1,100 Solyndra employees who
have just lost their jobs and to the U.S. taxpayers who may be on the hook for the bankrupt firm's loans.
Obama's
Bad Bet on Green Energy. Obama and Biden were literally invested in Solyndra's success. The
company got a half-billion-dollar federal loan guarantee, the first in a highly vaunted Department of Energy
green-jobs program, as part of the stimulus. This was supposed to be the new economic model:
government and its favored industries cooperating to lead the country into a green, politically approved
recovery. The showcase firm is now filing for Chapter 11 in an embarrassing blow to the
premises of Obamanomics.
GOP
wants White House papers on loan to failed solar company. House Republicans are demanding White
House paperwork related to a $535 million loan guarantee to a solar company that shut down this week.
The Republicans are probing the White House role in the 2009 federal loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc., a
California solar panel manufacturing company that ceased operations and is filing for bankruptcy,
resulting in 1,100 layoffs.
The
Administration's Solar Eclipse. Solyndra is a poster child for the pitfalls of
crony capitalism and what happens when government attempts to pick winners and losers in the
marketplace, particularly in the energy sector. It underscores the dangers of an energy
policy driven by ideology and not available resources and economic need.
Solyndra
and the stimulus. Solyndra was the first company to be awarded a federal loan guarantee under
the stimulus, worth $535 million. Taxpayers are likely to end up on the hook for much if not all of
that amount, a highly embarrassing development for President Obama because he was among the company's biggest
cheerleaders.
Is
there a Solyndra/ObamaCare Connection? Chatter began to emerge on Thursday [9/1/2011]
about the unique treatment received by the bankruptcy-declaring Solyndra, a government-dependent maker
of solar panels whose scheme, shaped somewhere between a pyramid and a trapezoid, was described in the
Washington Post no less...
Bankrupt
solar company with fed backing has cozy ties to Obama admin. A solar energy
company that intends to file for bankruptcy received $535 million in backing from the
federal government and has a cozy history with Democrats and the Obama administration, campaign
finance records show. Shareholders and executives of Solyndra, a green energy company producing
solar panels, fundraised for and donated to the Obama administration to the tune of hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
Bankrupt
solar company with fed backing has cozy ties to Obama admin. A solar energy company that
intends to file for bankruptcy received $535 million in backing from the federal government and has
a cozy history with Democrats and the Obama administration, campaign finance records show. Shareholders
and executives of Solyndra, a green energy company producing solar panels, fundraised for and donated to
the Obama administration to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Republicans: Solyndra investment
'dubious' from the start. DOE initially made the loan guarantee in 2009, shortly before
the company closed one of its factories and laid off workers. Solyndra executives have more
recently insisted the company was healthy, but on Wednesday it announced that it has suspended
manufacturing, is laying off 1,100 workers and will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Besides questioning whether the company was a poor risk, critics have seized on news reports that
one of Solyndra's prime financial backers was an Obama campaign bundler in 2008.
Solyndra's
lobbyists. The Obama administration sure liked to tout Solyndra, the solar-power
company that took in millions of federal subsidies before going bankrupt this week. Given
that this company's short life was dependent on government connections, it's worth looking at
Solyndra's lobbyists.
Obama's solar
stimulus snafu. President Obama made a high-profile visit in May 2010 to Solyndra Inc., a
solar-panel manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif. The company received $535 million in
loans from the Energy Department and was a centerpiece of the Obama administration's economic stimulus
effort. "Companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future,"
Mr. Obama chirped. On Wednesday, Solyndra closed its corporate headquarters, announced that
it's filing for bankruptcy and laying off 1,100 workers.
SpectraWatt
files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The frequently lauded and taxpayer-funded SpectraWatt
Inc. — which closed its solar cell plant and laid off workers earlier this year — has
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Obama's Real Energy Policy.
[Scroll down] Test data on solar modules indicates a failure rate of between 3-7% within seven years of
installation. Failures of inverters are exceeding 10%. None of this data is reflected in the
current economic models for solar power. The assumption is 25 years, but there is very limited
data. The business model for solar panels is becoming ever more challenging with rising materials costs
globally and that of labor in China. In North America Solyndra has gone through over $535 million in
government funding and is on the edge. Evergreen Solar, another poster child for solar power in this
country, filed for bankruptcy last week.
Feeding
The Masses On Unicorn Ribs. The belief that green jobs would drive a new era of American prosperity
was — like the large majority of green policy chat — intellectually incoherent. The
goods that drive renewable energy industries, like so much else in this world, are far cheaper to construct
in Asia.
Sun
Sets On The President's Policies. It's bad enough we lavish and often waste huge subsidies on green
companies like the now-bankrupt Evergreen Solar, based in Marlborough, Mass., trying to promote an energy source
that would not be able to compete in the marketplace without them. We're even promoting such failures
abroad. The U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent agency of the federal government, has announced
$500 million in loans for new solar energy projects in India. This is on top of about $75 million
already approved for similar projects in fiscal 2011.
Solon
shutters U.S. solar panel plant amid shakeout. Solar manufacturer Solon said yesterday [8/15/2011]
it will close a solar panel factory in Arizona in response to intense global competition on prices. The
Germany-based company said it will phase out a Tucson panel facility by October, cutting 60 jobs in the
process.
Clouds over
solar energy sector. Barely a year ago, there appeared little prospect for consolidation in
the global solar industry, which was enjoying a boom from strong demand from European markets such as Italy
and Germany. ... But the situation has changed over the past six months.
Evergreen
Solar files for bankruptcy, plans asset sale. Evergreen Solar Inc., the Massachusetts clean-energy
company that received millions in state subsidies from the Patrick administration for an ill-fated Bay State
factory, has filed for bankruptcy, listing $485.6 million in debt. Evergreen, which closed its
taxpayer-supported Devens factory in March and cut 800 jobs, has been trying to rework its debt for months.
Families
face £1,000 bill for green energy. Families face punishing increases in energy bills of up
to £1,000 a year to fund a switch to green energy and build new nuclear power stations. Energy
Secretary Chris Huhne yesterday outlined a new regime that will encourage firms to build thousands of wind
turbines, tidal power stations and nuclear plants.
Obama's
OMB ignores document subpoena. Solynydra was the first firm to receive a loan guarantee under
Obama's $859 billion economic stimulus program in 2009. Obama has pushed billions of federal tax
dollars to so-called "clean energy" firms like Solyndra, which makes proprietary solar energy panel equipment.
At least one major fund raiser for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, Tulsa, Oklahoma, billionaire George Kaiser,
is among Solyndra's venture capital backers and there have been multiple questions about the firm's future
viability.
The solar plant to
nowhere. Evergreen Solar stock is plunging this week into a black hole of probable bankruptcy.
The losers — aside from shareholders and employees — are the taxpayers from Massachusetts.
Their government, just in the last few years, received $58 million in taxpayer subsidies. This slug
of money was given to Evergreen to get them to open a factory on a former military base in the town of Devens.
Within two years of the opening, Evergreen closed that factory and shifted operations to China. Now it
looks like even that move is coming up a cropper as Evergreen seems headed to bankruptcy court.
The Real Cost of Solar
Energy. President Obama has thrown down the gauntlet, spending billions of dollars to chase the
green energy alchemy of solar harvesting. ... Obama is the self-appointed champion for solar power, dolling [sic]
out billions for and energy source that has failed to run profitably anywhere in the world. The economy of scale makes apparent the physical impossibility of solar harvesting. Using the sun
to provide 50% of America's electricity needs would necessarily cover tens of thousands of square
miles with solar panels and mirrors, with all of it costing tens of trillions of dollars.
Solar Power Encounters Head Winds from
Environmentalists. [Scroll down to page 6] A high-profile solar energy project in California
is facing serious delays as the Obama administration's push for renewable energy has collided with its enforcement
of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Solar
farm near Climax losing money because of property taxes. Producing 225,592 kilowatt hours of
electricity in its first year of operation, a solar farm in eastern Kalamazoo County that went online in
early 2010 has exceeded expectations. Also exceeding expectations is the property tax, said Sam Field,
a Kalamazoo attorney and one of the owners of Kalamazoo Solar.
Grand dream loses sheen
in glare of daylight. L.A. community colleges' green energy plan proves wildly impractical.
The blunders cost taxpayers $10 million.
Dark days for solar
power. Ever heard of the Solyndra solar-cell plant in Fremont, California? Most people
haven't. That's a shame, considering how much taxpayer money has been poured into it. Solyndra
is in serious financial trouble. Despite getting a $535 million bailout — part of the
taxpayer-funded "stimulus" — the company subsequently announced it would lay off more than
17 percent of its work force. It also had to close one of its manufacturing plants about a year
after it got the money.
Turtle
Hurdles, and Other Solar Obstacles. Solar thermal energy is a technology for harnessing solar
energy for thermal energy, differing from photovoltaics, which converts solar energy directly into electricity.
But the use of solar power, thermal or otherwise, is not as reliable as purported. Maintenance proves to
be a problem and the savings aren't realized in actual applications.
Spain's
Solar Industry Leading U.S. to Nowhere. A report last week estimates that the Spanish solar
industry has lost more than 30,000 jobs since 2008, due to the rollback of solar subsidies.
Solar
Power Generation: Boon or Boondoggle. [Scroll down] California, New Mexico, Florida, and
Arizona are just a few of the states forcing the owners and ratepayers of utilities to buy expensive "part-time"
power that destabilizes the electrical grid while not replacing a single kW of conventional power generation.
Such mandates take resources from those who would be productive and give them to those who produce an unwanted or
unnecessary product, leading to unemployment for many. Green jobs destroy twice their number of productive
jobs, as we have learned from Spanish studies about that country's green-energy nightmare.
Blown
Away: Wind Energy Analyzed. Hardly a stump speech goes by without a political candidate
calling for "more renewable sources of energy such as wind or solar" to either stop our dependence on foreign
oil or to slow the CO2 emissions that mean certain doom for our planet. The politicians are doing what
most politicians do: spewing rhetoric that they know voters want to hear; proposing programs they know
little or nothing about.
Why the Government Should Stay Out of Green
Energy. In the realm of solar power, there has never been more fanfare for a startup than in the
case of Solyndra. Founded in 2005, the company's rooftop-mounted solar panels were immediately touted as
"the next big thing" in alternative energy. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Solyndra has been
a magnet for venture capital cash from the Silicon Valley. However, just before Solyndra's promising
glow of success began to fade, the last big investor stepped into the boardroom: The Obama Administration.
And man, did the American taxpayer get played.
Solar Eclipse. The
prospects for solar and wind companies have declined significantly in the last few years. Those who
have been unfortunate enough to invest in solar and wind enterprises have, on the whole, experienced mediocre
returns even as the overall market has risen 50% since its low of March 2009. Over the last twelve
months, one popular global alternative energy index fund has declined in price from $25 to $20.50.
Over the past two years, it has produced a return of zero.
Keen Graphs of the Obvious.
The U.S. leads the world in recoverable fossil fuel resources, which are enough to last many more decades at
least. "Renewable" energy resources, other than hydroelectric dams, supply less than 5% of all energy in
the U.S., even after years of government-funded research, incentives, regulations, and subsidies. Fossil
fuels, nuclear, and hydroelectric will dominate for decades to come. The most economical source of
electricity for some time to come is natural gas. The most expensive is solar panels.
Green Power generates Red Ink.
It's time to end the mollycoddling of wind and solar energy toys before this stupidity does irreversible
damage to Australia's electricity supply and costs. The mindless green dream of producing serious base
load power from whimsical breezes and intermittent sunbeams has caused a halt to new low-cost coal power, a
boom in expensive gas power, a national debate about nuclear power and no effect at all on global climate.
Never Ready for Prime Time.
Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen (November 2010): "Allowing the tax incentive to expire would risk
jobs in a very important domestic energy sector and across rural America." Of course, it is only natural
for aid-dependent industries to warn that they would suffer without the continuation of aid. Employing
this circular logic, taxpayer funded renewable power has remained the "energy of the future" for decades.
But American taxpayers simply cannot afford to subsidize industries that are forever-nascent.
Solar Energy Is Far from
Ready to Replace Petroleum. The principal use of petroleum in the United
States is for transportation, not electrical generation. In 2002, petroleum generated
slightly more than 2 percent of total electricity generated at U.S. power plants. That
same year, solar sources generated about 0.01 percent of the nation's electricity. The
biggest competitor to solar electrical generation is not petroleum but coal, which generates
about 54 percent of the nation's electricity. The source of this coal is the United
States, which has immeasurable amounts of it and requires no military commitments outside its
borders to protect it.
Obama's Solar Energy Fantasy.
This is more than a repeat of the 19th century's error of subsidizing railroad construction. ... Here, though,
the situation is even worse than simple crony capitalism, given its unique 21st century twist. The
wrinkle is that at least in the 1860s it was possible to deploy a technology that could conceivably fulfill
its purpose. Trains could potentially deliver freight and passengers from point A to B in a
cost-effective way. No such claim can be made for large-scale solar power technology, at present.
Solar
Power Generation: Boon or Boondoggle. Obviously even the hottest tropical sun won't boil water, so all solar
thermal generators are based on concentrated solar thermal (CST) generation, which is exactly what the name implies:
concentrating light to produce heat. ... The materials required for such a facility are awesome. Not just the mirrors,
but the plumbing, wiring, hundreds of tons of structural materials, and thousands of tons of concrete foundations
The late Petr Beckmann calculated that a solar plant would not be able over its lifetime to produce enough energy to
build another solar plant of comparable size.
Solar Sticker Shock Hits Wash. County.
Kittitas County, Washington is experiencing sticker shock as the true cost of solar power is coming in at more
than three times the promised price. In less than one month's time, the cost estimate for a proposed
75 megawatt solar power plant has soared by more than 200 percent.
Florida Electricity Costs Skyrocket
as Utility Invests Heavily in Solar. Florida Power & Light (FPL) customers are being hit with a
16 percent hike in electricity prices as the utility company invests more heavily in solar power. FPL's
ongoing solar investment appears to violate a state law requiring utilities to provide power from the least
expensive available source.
San Francisco Solar Initiative Too
Costly. $100 million solar power initiative approved by San Francisco voters
in 2001 has yet to produce any solar power, San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission
reports. Prior to the 2001 solar power ballot initiative, solar power advocates promised
the costs of solar panel technology were poised to drop dramatically. [And they were wrong.]
Solar Power: Too
Good to Be True. For decades, there have been delirious proclamations
that the world would soon run on solar energy. Those statements always have
sounded too good to be true … and, sure enough, they always have been false.
Solar panels a 'loser,' professor
says. Installing solar panels on homes is an economic "loser" with the costs far outweighing the
financial benefit, a respected University of California-Berkeley business professor said Wednesday [2/20/2008].
The technology, using photovoltaic panels to generate electricity, is not economically competitive with fossil
fuels and costs more than other renewable fuels, said Severin Borenstein, who also directs the UC Energy
Institute. "We are throwing away money by installing the current solar PV technology," he said.
Neighbors Clash
Over Trees, Solar Power. In an environmental dispute seemingly scripted for eco-friendly
California, a man asked prosecutors to file charges against his neighbors because their towering redwoods
blocked sunlight to his backyard solar panels.
Update:
Landowner Must Cut Redwoods to Accommodate
Neighbor's Solar Panels. In a battle between next-door neighbor environmentalists, a Sunnyvale,
California couple is being ordered to cut down their backyard redwood trees or face up to $1,000 per day in
fines. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office issued the order to Richard Treanor and Carolynn
Bissett after their neighbor, Mark Vargas, complained the redwoods were partially shading a solar power panel
Vargas had installed a few years after the redwoods were planted.
The Editor says...
This decision sets an important precedent: Solar panels trump redwood trees, even if the trees were
there first.
Trees
Block Solar Panels, and a Feud Ends in Court. Call it an eco-parable: one Prius-driving
couple takes pride in their eight redwoods, the first of them planted over a decade ago. Their
electric-car-driving neighbors take pride in their rooftop solar panels, installed five years after
the first trees were planted.
Schwarzenegger
Misfires With Solar Subsidy. Photovoltaic (PV) systems convert sunlight
into electricity. This is great, but for a few problems: They are costly, they
rarely produce the electricity claimed, and, even with subsidies, PV does not pay for itself.
Solar Junk: In
California, where solar energy usage has become most common, some 20 homeowners'
associations have laws in place making it harder to install solar panels.
Read more about the California Energy
Crunch of 2000, and see if all those solar panels did any good. California
ran into an energy crisis because the population is growing steadily but there are no new
power plants. Environmentalists have made it all but impossible to build new power
plants in California.
"Million Solar Roofs" Bill Dies in
California Assembly. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Million Solar
Roofs" program (the state Senate bill known as SB1), which would give billions of tax dollars
to the solar power industry and force home builders to offer solar power as a standard
component of all new home construction, died in the state's assembly
September 8. Spiraling cost estimates largely killed the bill.
Renewable Portfolio Standard Threatens Consumers.
The notion that an RPS will include a "portfolio" of renewable energy sources is misleading — wind
energy is the only economically viable renewable energy source given current technologies. Although
other renewable sources, such as biomass and solar, have long-term potential, they are currently no more than
niche technologies.
Voters Reject Solar-Powered Housing
Development. Voters in Livermore, California on November 8 rejected an initiative that
would have allowed construction of the nation's largest solar-powered community.
MSNBGreen: The King Kong of the
corporate world needs tax breaks, subsidies and favorable regulations in order to make green technology
profitable. Indeed, GE has nearly cornered the market on the solar panels necessary to implement
Kyoto-style reforms. Global warming hysteria is good for its bottom line.
Solar
Meets Polar as Winter Curbs Clean Energy. Old Man Winter, it turns out, is no friend of renewable
energy. This time of year, wind turbine blades ice up, biodiesel congeals in tanks and solar panels
produce less power because there is not as much sun. And perhaps most irritating to the people who own
them, the panels become covered with snow, rendering them useless even in bright winter sunshine.
Problems with 'green' energy
you may not have heard about. After a big snowstorm, your electricity supply is reduced or terminated, if you
are depending on solar. ... Keep in mind the unreliability and hazards of alternative power the next time Obama sings the
praises of green energy and tells us how wonderful it will be when he shuts down coal powered facilities.
E-waste looms behind solar-power boom.
Solar is a renewable source of energy, and solar panels don't pollute when they are generating electricity.
But the upstream process of making solar panels involves a number of toxic chemicals. Most solar cells
are made out of silicon, the same material embedded in billions of electronic chips. As a result, the
burgeoning solar photovoltaics (PV) industry faces an electronic-waste problem.
The
Solar and Renewable Utopia: Carter Redux, that's the only way to put it. After 30 years
out of power, the purveyors of the Solar and Renewable Utopia are back. We're going to develop
windmills, make solar panels affordable, and redesign buildings so they use only half as much
energy — in theory, at least. The subtext, of course, is this — we won't
have to deal with coal, nuclear, or any of those other nasty technologies that aren't "clean and
renewable." So what's wrong with this picture? Well, the problem is that 30 years hasn't
changed the physics of things like the intensity of sunlight or wind power.
Levelized
Cost of New Electricity Generating Technologies. Analysis shows wind and solar power are ridiculously
expensive, compared to natural gas, coal and nuclear power.
No Substitute For Fossil Fuels.
Earlier this year, Congress approved a scheme to pour $80 billion — on top of the tens of billions
already spent — into renewables. A government report released last week indicates the money
will be wasted. Renewable energy is the shiny gem that everyone wants but no one can have.
The Green Energy Collapse. Across
the world, unsustainable subsidies for wind and solar are being cut back. The Ontario government paints
itself in extreme green. It has outlawed coal — the only jurisdiction on the continent to have
done so. It boasts the world's biggest solar plant. It boasts the western world's biggest
subsidies to the renewables industry. And now, it also boasts the western world's fastest-growing
renewables industry.
Green power's hidden
agenda: Wind, solar, and geothermal, by contrast, are the most expensive alternatives to
coal. A kilowatt of power from such renewables typically costs about ten times as much as a kilowatt
from coal — and more than six times as much as a kilowatt from nuclear or hydropower. Alternative
energy promoters, including former vice president Al Gore, promise that these prices will decline if only the
government subsidizes the necessary technological innovation. Those promises have not come true over the past
three decades, and it's extremely unlikely that they ever will.
Troy's
celebrated solar house left in dark. It was supposed to be a shining example of the green
movement — a completely independent solar-powered house with no gas or electrical hookups.
Seven months ago, officials gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the $900,000 house owned by
the city of Troy that was to be used as an educational tool and meeting spot. But it never opened to the
public. And it remains closed.
Pipes
burst in solar house. Students from Lawrence Technological University, with help from DTE Energy,
built the house as part of a national solar decathlon two years ago, said Eric Pope, the news bureau managing
editor at LTU in Southfield. [Rush] Limbaugh said the solar home "looks like a trailer and cost
900 grand. The floors blew up because the pipes froze. No electricity. No gas. The
future!" And he was just getting warmed up.
Green Follies: Gov't Built Solar House Falls
Apart. Oh, there are all sorts of reasons why this engineering marvel was an utter failure.
There is finger pointing and head scratching all around. But the singular fact of the matter is that this
project is a failure because it was not undertaken by business in a situation where success meant fulfilling a
business plan to satisfy investors in order to obtain profit. No, it was a dalliance by professors financed
by government without any expectations or requirements for success.
"Sustainability"
Isn't Sustainable. A number of college and universities have introduced "Sustainability
Studies." Of course, "sustainability" is just another term for environmentalism, but it exposes the
mentality of the environmental movement very well. The idea is that unless we are forced use fewer
resources, we will not be able to sustain our life on earth and humanity will disappear or at best face
massive disaster. ... What sounds good, however, often is not, and "sustainability" has become yet another
scam — yes, scam — the statists have foisted on people in the name of saving humanity and planet
earth.
Bono
Discovers Sustainable Development Isn't Sustainable. The big problem with renewable energy is
that it just doesn't renew itself. The sun does not shine enough and the wind doesn't blow enough to power
the towns, cities, factories, hospitals and schools that make our lives so livable. No environmentalist
would ever allow their child to be treated in a hospital fully powered by "renewables". They would not
take the risk that the wind might stop whilst their baby was on the operating table. ... Renewable energy and
sustainable development are for "other people".
Austin
Consumers Avoid Pricey Renewable Power. Austin Energy, a publicly owned power company and a city
department of Austin, Texas, has found itself stuck with surplus renewable power as city residents have
declined to sign up for higher rates under the city's voluntary GreenChoice program. Contracting with
renewable power providers and offering the service to customers sounded like a good idea to city officials
until the price tag came in at up to three times the cost of conventional power. City residents
aren't buying.
Environmentalist Economic
Strangulation. Solar energy requires vast territories for solar cells — as many as
46,000 square miles would have to be covered by solar panels. One logical place for a "solar
energy farm" would be the wide-open, sunshine-rich, sparsely populated Mojave Desert. However, Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) already has nixed that possibility in the name of wilderness protection. As
a frustrated Gov. Schwarzenegger lamented, if you can't put solar panels in the Mojave Desert, then where
can you put them?
Is Solar Power Dead in
the Water? Congress's rush to embrace solar power is having some unintended consequences. It will turn
over a large chunk of federal land to private energy companies, and it may involve withdrawing billions of gallons of water
from sensitive desert habitat. By 2015, Congress wants the Interior and Energy Departments to place, on federal land,
renewable energy projects that can generate at least 10,000 megawatts of electricity. The Energy Policy Act of 2005
has set off a frantic land grab as solar and wind energy companies rush to obtain permits for projects in Arizona, California,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
L.A.
Voters Reject Solar Initiative. In a surprising blow to environmental activists and the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union, Los Angeles voters rejected a ballot
initiative that would have required the city to install 400 megawatts of solar panels by
2014. ... The opposition took offense at the secretive manner in which the initiative was
drafted, and they also focused on the high cost of solar power.
Global Warming Blues:
Green electric power from windmills and solar energy is impracticable. Its expensive and due to the
erratic nature of sunshine and wind, solar and wind power must be backed up by duplicate power plants or by
energy storage systems that are as expensive as duplicate power plants. It sometimes seems that the
advocates of solar power don't realize that the sun does not shine at night.
Spain's Solar-Power Collapse Dims Subsidy
Model. Spain's hopes of becoming a world leader in solar power have collapsed since the Spanish
government slammed the brakes on generous subsidies. The sudden change has rippled across the global
solar industry, in a warning of the problems that government-supported renewable-energy programs can encounter.
Highest Cost Generating Plant Comes On Line
in Florida to Obama Fanfare. Florida Power & Light (FPL) has built a 25 megawatt
photovoltaic power plant in Southern Florida that will supply power to 3000 homes and businesses —
a small fraction of the company's over 4 million customers. ... FPL spent $152 million building the
plant, which amounts to $6,080 per kilowatt — a figure substantiated by the Energy Information
Administration, who ranks photovoltaic solar the highest cost technology of a potential slate of 20 possible
future generating technologies.
Energy to spare.
Under the inspiration of the Green Zeitgeist, I cannot go into a magazine shop without finding some science-lite
cover story on new prospects for harnessing solar, thermal, wind, tidal, or whatever "renewable" forces.
There is an immense credulous audience out there, willing to be entertained by such nonsense. No one
with a grasp of high school physics should take any of these schemes seriously. In each case, we are
looking at a crank idea from the hippie era, which has not since been significantly improved, because it
can't be.
Solar Power
Realities: Solar power is uneconomic. Government mandates and subsidies hide
the true cost of renewable energy but these additional costs must be carried by others.
Unsustainable cow manure. Wind,
solar and bio-fuels will ensure an eco-friendly, climate-protecting, planet-saving, sustainable inheritance
for our children. Or so we are told by activists and politicians intent on enacting new renewable energy
standards, mandates and subsidies during a lame duck session. It may be useful to address some basic
issues, before going further down the road to Renewable Utopia.
The Unbearable
Lightness of Solar Power. [An article in the New York Times] features a dramatic photo of
500 acres of solar panels sitting next to an innocuous looking natural gas plant in Indiantown, Fla., owned
by Florida Power & Light. The natural gas plant — which occupies no more than
15 acres — produces 3,800 megawatts of reliable electricity. The gigantic
500-acre solar complex next to it (that's about three-quarters of a square mile) will produce
75 MW of electricity AT ITS MAXIMUM, i.e., on a hot summer afternoon.
So Long, Solar. Oh, the glory days
of almost a month ago, when advocates promoted the promise of solar energy in the United States. ... Fast-forward
to a report in today's [3/27/2010] Washington Post: "BP will close its solar-panel manufacturing plant in Frederick,
the final step in moving its solar business out of the United States to facilities in China, India and
other countries."
A big bet on big government: ' Al Gore, solar power, and
corporate welfare. The New York Times reports on the venture capital firm Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, and its "big bet on solar technology." Read the post closely,
and you'll see that the success of solar technology companies is utterly tied to corporate welfare.
How High are Your State's Electricity Prices?
Electricity prices are nearly 40 percent higher in states with renewable electricity mandates.
Petroleum produces only 1 percent of our electricity. Using wind power or solar to produce electricity
will do nothing to reduce our use of foreign oil. Thirteen of the 15 states with the least expensive
residential electricity prices produce at least 50 percent of their electricity from either coal or
hydroelectric power. Americans need more affordable energy now, not vague promises for the future.
Affordable energy is under
assault. Many politicians and ideological special-interest groups are working to place
onerous restrictions on the energy we use and on how we use it. The energy resources that supply
85 percent of our energy needs — coal, oil, and natural gas — are the most
affordable and therefore the targets of this assault. The regulations are intended to make energy
from these sources harder to produce and more expensive to use. But these policies not only
decrease the availability and increase the price of natural gas, coal, and oil, they also force the
American people to use energy sources that would otherwise be too expensive and unreliable to exist
commercially.
Obama's Green Energy Myth.
Both wind power and solar power are more expensive — incredibly so in the case of solar — than
either fossil power or nuclear power. Worse, you can't count on either wind or solar as a reliable source
of energy, since the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. Accordingly, for each
megawatt of wind and solar capacity we develop, another megawatt of back-up power, typically powered by
fossil fuels, has to be in place. This redundancy adds to the already unacceptable cost of "green
energy."
Huge Solar-Plant
Project Approved. A proposal to build the world's biggest solar-thermal power plant in the
Southern California desert got the go-ahead Monday from the Obama administration, which used the announcement
to bolster its message that renewable energy creates jobs. The $6 billion project is being developed
by Solar Trust of America, a joint venture between Germany's Solar Millennium AG and privately held Ferrostaal AG
on 7,025 acres of federally owned land near Blythe, Calif. The approval clears the way for the
developers to seek federal grants and loan guarantees.
The Editor says...
It's a socialist trifecta: Using taxpayers' money to let a foreign company build a subsidized
business on federal land.
Peak renewables.
The "peak oil" scare has long been used as an excuse for alternative-energy providers to demand government
subsidies. We are told that oil production will reach a zenith and the wells will run dry any day now,
so failure to provide billions in handouts to the providers of other fuels would be irresponsible. Forget
peak oil — the world may be on the verge of peak renewables. The much-hyped intermittent energy
sources such as solar and wind have proved so expensive to maintain that other developed nations are trimming
subsidies.
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