Obama touted solar technology company files for bankruptcy
But not before sucking down over half a billion dollars in federal loan guarantees that will now be exercised.
Solyndra was touted by the Obama administration as a prime example of how green technology could deliver jobs. The President visited the facility in May of last year and said "it is just a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism and the fact that we continue to have the best universities in the world, the best technology in the world, and most importantly the best workers in the world. And you guys all represent that. "
The federal government offered $535 million in low cost loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. NBC Bay Area has contacted the White House asking for a statement.
This is what happens when government tries to pick winners and losers economically with absolutely no understanding of the market in which they intrude. What this clearly points out, unless there was true malfeasance by the company, is there is no market, at this time, for what they were selling. Either that, or they were truly incompetent.
This was a “if we build it they will buy” project that apparently either misrepresented the market or misunderstood it. Either way, it failed. And the Feds were apparently no more informed about the market potential of the product than the company. Result – over half a billion in loans guaranteed by the Federal government are now being called in. The taxpayer, as usual, is on the hook to pay off the mistake the government made.
One of the constant themes here is the government is way outside its charter when it engages in activities like this. It is an example of what those Tea Party lunatics mean when they talk about government intrusion and call for smaller government. Note, it has nothing to do with welfare reform or any other of the usual nonsense their opponents try to tag them with. It has to do with out-of-control government and out-of-control spending in areas where none of the founders ever even hinted at envisioning a Federal presence.
It’s a pity this has to be constantly pointed out to Tea Party critics bent on stereotyping members of that group as racists. But as usual, reality provides the perfect context and example to counter their baseless charges.
This is not what our government should be involved in, period. And certainly not with tax payers money, exclamation point!
~McQ
Twitter: @McQandO
Bad Luck Barry LOVES the fascist economic model. I know I say this a lot, but it needs saying. It is the most seductive of the Collectivist models to Americans. Nixon loved it, too, which is how we got Amtrak (for instance).
American businesses all over the nation are being “saddle-broken” as Steven Green or Bill Whittle put it. Trained to be compliant, contributing members of the Chicago Way.
http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=105&series-id=60#
At its root, it is a central planned economic model, calculated to replace market competition with crony competition…lobbyist supplication before the seats of power…PLUS overt punishment for those who resist or TRY to keep true to the market.
It hardly needs be said that this is corrupt, and has been characterized by simple outlaw behavior within the government.
Rags, read Burton Folsom’s book “Myth of the Robber Barons”; this crap has been going on since the country was founded.
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It’s racist to oppose solar energy.
sure, it follows, because it’s racist to oppose Obama.
And it seems it is also racist if Congress exerts it’s CO-EQUAL authority to the President by suggesting he pick another day for his lame speechifying.
And at this point, I think an audit of the owner’s/officers is in order to make sure they were decent custodians of public funds.
You don’t have to just skin private investors to act like Bernie Madoff.
I’m shocked! Shocked! to find political payoffs are involved here!
Wow. How did a green energy company go TU? I mean, haven’t we been ASSURED that green energy is the next great thing, that green jobs are going to save out economy, that Americans are just pining away for green technology? There MUST have been some bad luck (an earthquake? a war in another hemisphere?) to cause this, because running a green energy company should be like running a stripclub next to a military base: how can you miss?
/ sarc
The GOP looks to be hanging this around Bad Luck Barry’s neck, as well they should. That SCFOAMF has blown billions on boondoggles like this. AT BEST he’s an idiot; at worst, he’s been paying off political supporters with taxpayer money.
When you consider the core goal of wind and solar energy, which is to reduce CO2 emissions to save this world from evil AGW, it puts some things into perspective.
Neither wind nor solar have been or are likely anytime soon to be significant contributers to our electrical grid. At least not in any efficient manner. They may never be.
If AGW was a serious threat that demaded mitigation, the route forward would be nuke plants, with NG providing the peaking power as much as possible (and all power in some cases perhaps) at least until we have a better solution. Further, Carter’s ban on reprocessing plants should be recended.
Nukes offer an excellent source of base power that does not produce CO2. New nukes are safer then the late 60s models that failed in Japan after the earthquake. Reprocessing largely eliminates the waste product problem. Nukes are expensive, but still cheaper then wind and solar, and they work. And many of the cost are due to regulations that burden the industry which could be revised.
AGW should be a godsend to nuke plants. But it isn’t. It is a godsend to tech that doesn’t work as a serious form of energy. The politicians are not serious about AGW. Sure, they are serious about taxing CO2 and pushign money into the tech they select, but this seriousness does not extend to any rational energy policy or any rational assesment of enegy tech.
The Collective is not about finding alternatives that work.
It is about misanthropy. It is a war on the Enlightenment, and modernity.
Solyndra’s first mistake was setting up their manufacturing plant in California.
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