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Waymore
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 Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 8:25 pm Post subject: A Disaster for Obama: Solyndra |
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no, this isn't the story you saw last week, or the one you heard about two weeks ago, nor is it the one from last month, this is an entirely different green company going under, at the cost of hundreds of millions to us taxpayers
all hail the great and wise community organizer, bow down before his power and wisdom
| Quote: | Solyndra Filing a Disaster for Obama
By Scott McGrew
| Wednesday, Aug 31, 2011 | Updated 9:23 AM PDT
President Obama faces political catastrophe in the form of Solyndra -- a San Francisco Bay area solar company that he touted as a gleaming example of green technology. It has announced it will declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. More than 1,100 people will lose their jobs.
During a visit to the Fremont facility in spring of 2010, the President said the factory "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. "
It's not his statements the administration will regret; it's the loan guarantees. The President was celebrating $535 million in federal promises from the Department of Energy to the solar startup. The administration didn't do its due diligence, says the Government Accountability Office. "There's a consequence if you don't follow a rigorous process that's transparent," Franklin Rusco of GAO told the website iWatch News.
The President touted the federally back money as a way to create jobs. The President's opponents immediately jumped on the deal as Solyndra made its first layoffs.
Republican Congressman Cliff Stearns of Florida warned, "I am concerned that the DOE is providing loans and loan guarantees to firms that aren't capable of competing in the global market, even with government subsidies."
Another critic, Fred Upton of Michigan: "The unfortunate reality is that loan guarantee highlights many of the systemic flaws associated with the stimulus in the mad dash to spend hundreds of billions of dollars." |
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Solyndra-Filing-a-Disaster-for-Obama-128816968.html
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Last edited by Waymore on Thu Oct 06, 2011 4:19 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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clevemitch
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| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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| That's three of these "green" industrial companies going bellyup in the past few weeks. |
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TRG
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| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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This kinda sucks and hits home in a lot of ways. SCHOTT is a big solar company here in NM that had a lot of potential. They were doing great until the obama economy kicked in. Then, while trying to secure a loan for a major expansion that would have created hundreds of jobs, obamas bank crisis happened. Long story short, no loan, no jobs. In fact they had a huge layoff.
Here in the sun belt it makes sense to use some of your rooftop for solar energy production. I still think that the industry still has a chance. But only after we get dumbo ears out of the WH. That is if everything doesn't come tumbling down before then.
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J K Edwards
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 7:30 am Post subject: |
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Notwithstanding offshore competition in the solar panel market, this is just a good example of getting the cart ahead of the horse. It's one thing to try to create jobs, its another to pick on the wrong industry. Shouldn't have taken a mental giant to figure out with home foreclosures in the millions, the housing market in general being in the crapper, and so much economic uncertainty that few would be making major investments in solar energy for their home. To do the job right is very, very expensive and creates a financial risk most are just not willing to take given the overall economic circumstances.
One of Oblunder's hip shots, not any different than all those infrastructure jobs that never happened because of the engineering time needed before moving forward. Basically just another example of no one in the administration having even a remote clue about the real world or the fact it takes a lot more than wishful thinking to get people back to work.
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needmoredecibels
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 7:33 am Post subject: |
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$535M???? That's a lot of solar panels.
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J K Edwards
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:22 am Post subject: |
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| needmoredecibels wrote: | | $535M???? That's a lot of solar panels. |
Yeah, but it amounted to $44,583 for each job now lost, plus whatever had been originally invested in the company before the loan guarantee.
Somebody didn't do a very good job in examining the prospects in the first place!
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Waymore
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| Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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yeah, they're not in Obama's back pocket, they're up his ass
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Waymore
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| Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | September 2, 2011 12:00 A.M.
Obama’s Enron
Bush was flayed for Enron. Where does that put Obama and his green-energy pet?
We have seen the future, and it went bankrupt.
If the praises of high-ranking Obama-administration officials were a viable business plan, the solar-panel maker Solyndra would be an industrial juggernaut. Vice President Biden insisted that the jobs created by the California-based firm would “allow America to compete and to lead like we did in the 20th century.”
In a visit to Solyndra in May 2010, President Obama called it “a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism.” He all but redefined the traditional statement of Americanness to encompass motherhood, apple pie, and the conversion of sunlight into electricity through cylindrical thin-film solar cells, the specialty of Solyndra.
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. At least the Obama administration can’t be accused of practicing industrial policy the old-fashioned way and picking winners. It is evidently quite ready to pick losers, too.
A Department of Energy spokesman explained wanly, “The company was considered extraordinarily innovative as recently as 2010.” Innovative, maybe; profitable, no. It had never turned a profit since its founding in 2005. In the still “extraordinarily innovative” year of 2010, it canceled an attempted IPO and axed its CEO.
Plenty of venture capitalists made foolish bets on Solyndra, but the federal government was the most reckless. The Obama administration wanted to throw money at the likes of Solyndra without due diligence, or much diligence at all. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office warned that the Energy Department loan program — created in a 2005 energy bill — had inadequate safeguards.
Nonetheless, within 60 days of becoming energy secretary, Steven Chu put Uncle Sam on the hook for Solyndra. According to the Wall Street Journal, $527 million of the $535 million federal loan has been drawn down, with a bankruptcy court set to determine how much the feds will recover. Chu is fortunate that taxpayers can’t bring shareholder lawsuits against the federal government.
President Bush was flayed for the Enron bankruptcy, based on his tenuous ties to the firm. If the same media rules applied, Solyndra would be Obama’s Enron, given his active promotion of the company and his lavish funding of it. A prodigious Obama-Biden fundraiser is a major backer of the failed concern.
Solyndra’s crash comes during a wave of solar bankruptcies. The government’s enthusiasm for solar power far outstripped that of consumers. Spain provided something of a precursor. It massively subsidized a solar-power industry that collapsed when the government realized its generosity was unsustainable and cut back. One Spanish newspaper had a headline, “Spain admits that the green economy sold to Obama is a ruin.”
China is picking up the pieces. Not only does China coddle solar firms, it inherently is a lower-cost manufacturing environment. Its cheap, simple solar panels are more marketable than the more sophisticated version attempted by Solyndra. Our subsidies for the purchase of solar panels are often used to buy Chinese products. Inevitably, the U.S. solar industry will seek to score the trifecta of government support already achieved by the boondoggle fuel ethanol — subsidizing its production, mandating its use, and barring its foreign competitors.
The stakes in the battle to manufacture solar panels are exceedingly small. Solar power accounts for less than 1 percent of the electricity generated in the United States. The Obama administration’s fervency for it has more to do with the romance of its clean, postindustrial image than with economics. Obama said last year, “The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra.” If that were so, it never would have needed half a billion of our dollars in the first place. |
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/276119/obama-s-enron-rich-lowry
people should end up in jail for this, we could start with Chu, maybe work up from there
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He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. |
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rude
XMelot #6 - Golden Member
Joined: 15 May 2005
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Location: New Orleans, LA
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| Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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| And the mainstream libtard media will largely remain silent on this with no invetigative pieces, no interviews with crying employees who lost their life savings to stir up the public's ire. |
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J K Edwards
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Location: Firing Range
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| Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Waymore wrote: | | Quote: | September 2, 2011 12:00 A.M.
Obama’s Enron
Bush was flayed for Enron. Where does that put Obama and his green-energy pet?
We have seen the future, and it went bankrupt.
If the praises of high-ranking Obama-administration officials were a viable business plan, the solar-panel maker Solyndra would be an industrial juggernaut. Vice President Biden insisted that the jobs created by the California-based firm would “allow America to compete and to lead like we did in the 20th century.”
In a visit to Solyndra in May 2010, President Obama called it “a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism.” He all but redefined the traditional statement of Americanness to encompass motherhood, apple pie, and the conversion of sunlight into electricity through cylindrical thin-film solar cells, the specialty of Solyndra.
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. At least the Obama administration can’t be accused of practicing industrial policy the old-fashioned way and picking winners. It is evidently quite ready to pick losers, too.
A Department of Energy spokesman explained wanly, “The company was considered extraordinarily innovative as recently as 2010.” Innovative, maybe; profitable, no. It had never turned a profit since its founding in 2005. In the still “extraordinarily innovative” year of 2010, it canceled an attempted IPO and axed its CEO.
Plenty of venture capitalists made foolish bets on Solyndra, but the federal government was the most reckless. The Obama administration wanted to throw money at the likes of Solyndra without due diligence, or much diligence at all. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office warned that the Energy Department loan program — created in a 2005 energy bill — had inadequate safeguards.
Nonetheless, within 60 days of becoming energy secretary, Steven Chu put Uncle Sam on the hook for Solyndra. According to the Wall Street Journal, $527 million of the $535 million federal loan has been drawn down, with a bankruptcy court set to determine how much the feds will recover. Chu is fortunate that taxpayers can’t bring shareholder lawsuits against the federal government.
President Bush was flayed for the Enron bankruptcy, based on his tenuous ties to the firm. If the same media rules applied, Solyndra would be Obama’s Enron, given his active promotion of the company and his lavish funding of it. A prodigious Obama-Biden fundraiser is a major backer of the failed concern.
Solyndra’s crash comes during a wave of solar bankruptcies. The government’s enthusiasm for solar power far outstripped that of consumers. Spain provided something of a precursor. It massively subsidized a solar-power industry that collapsed when the government realized its generosity was unsustainable and cut back. One Spanish newspaper had a headline, “Spain admits that the green economy sold to Obama is a ruin.”
China is picking up the pieces. Not only does China coddle solar firms, it inherently is a lower-cost manufacturing environment. Its cheap, simple solar panels are more marketable than the more sophisticated version attempted by Solyndra. Our subsidies for the purchase of solar panels are often used to buy Chinese products. Inevitably, the U.S. solar industry will seek to score the trifecta of government support already achieved by the boondoggle fuel ethanol — subsidizing its production, mandating its use, and barring its foreign competitors.
The stakes in the battle to manufacture solar panels are exceedingly small. Solar power accounts for less than 1 percent of the electricity generated in the United States. The Obama administration’s fervency for it has more to do with the romance of its clean, postindustrial image than with economics. Obama said last year, “The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra.” If that were so, it never would have needed half a billion of our dollars in the first place. |
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/276119/obama-s-enron-rich-lowry
people should end up in jail for this, we could start with Chu, maybe work up from there |
A perfect example of why many products being imported to this country should be subject to a Tariff. Tariffs are the only protection U.S. manufacturing businesses have against cheap products being produced by cheap labor from other countries. Of course it hasn't helped a bit that our government has encouraged U.S. manufacturers to build plants in once described as third world countries via tax breaks for doing so in the name of diplomatic relationships. The latter being based on the idea it would keep such countries from establishing relationships with Communist Russia.
There is not one sterling example of the latter ever working to the distinct advantage of the United States in the long run.
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frizgolf
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J K Edwards
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| Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:03 am Post subject: |
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Studying anything in nature can be most revealing. Of all creatures on Earth only humans are arrogant enough to believe they actually create. All we have ever accomplished is the discovery and perhaps practical use of those things which have been on the planet Earth far longer than we.
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TRG
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| Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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| J K Edwards wrote: | | A perfect example of why many products being imported to this country should be subject to a Tariff. Tariffs are the only protection U.S. manufacturing businesses have against cheap products being produced by cheap labor from other countries. |
Thats one tax that I'd vote for.
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"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend." - Margaret Thatcher (13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013)
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J K Edwards
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| Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:19 pm Post subject: |
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| TRG wrote: | | J K Edwards wrote: | | A perfect example of why many products being imported to this country should be subject to a Tariff. Tariffs are the only protection U.S. manufacturing businesses have against cheap products being produced by cheap labor from other countries. |
Thats one tax that I'd vote for.
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We can thank Slick Willie for getting us involved in the WTO in 1995 for the lack of tariffs that would have protected U.S. businesses and workers from foreign products being indiscriminately dumped in this country. Possibly the underlying reason our unemployment, debt, budget, and general economic problems we have today exist. Thanks Slick and Dumocrats.
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needmoredecibels
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| Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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There are two fairly large solar farms being built in my area. They are both on (formerly) farm property. I wonder how they will fair over the long haul in terms paying back their investment.
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