Here's a sad and revealing chronology about a U.S. president named Obama, a California company named Solyndra and, now, a congressional investigation into the administration's loan guarantee of $535 million in a failed green energy project that was supposed to create jobs.
But it didn't.
At enormous taxpayer cost.
The story starts in the early 2009 days of the Democratic administration of Barack Obama and the hastily written economic stimulus legislation passed by the whopping Democratic congressional majorities of Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.
You'll remember it was very important to pass the $787-billion economic stimulus bill as quickly as possible then to keep the 7.1% national unemployment rate from rising further. Today, it's 9%. So, that didn't work out well, either.
Remember President Obama went to the Caterpillar plant in his home state of Illinois and said ....
Back in those days, the term "shovel-ready" wasn't a joke. It was a promise to put this money to work creating jobs ASAP so Obama could get on with the business of his beloved healthcare bill.
Obama had the idea that since he was going to spend three-quarters of a trillion dollars anyway, why not put a fair chunk of that dough into kick-starting green energy projects, which often need subsidies because they're still not economically practical to work on their own? Potentially win-win. Or not.
On Sept. 9 that year in a special closed-circuit TV program for the groundbreaking of Solyndra's new plant, Vice President Joe "Recovery Summer" Biden announced the signing of the $535-million federal loan guarantee, the Energy Department's first under the stimulus plan.
Joe said, "These jobs are the jobs that are going to define the 21st century that will allow America to compete and to lead like we did in the 20th century.”
The money would finance construction of a Solyndra facility, creating 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 full-time positions in the modern plant making photovoltaic solar panels.
Because it was such a promising venture, Obama himself visited Fremont eight months later (see photos here and video report here) to hail his administration's decision to move in that direction.
The president said the facility was "leading the way to a brighter and more prosperous future" and the plant was "a testament to American ingenuity and the best workers in the world."
He said high-tech facilities like Solyndra would help "lay a new foundation for lasting growth."
Then came last November, the day after the midterm elections when everyone was focused on the historic shift to Republican control of the House. Solyndra announced then that not only was it not going to create those 1,000 full-time jobs so eagerly hailed by Obama and Biden, but it also was going to close an older factory and actually lay off 175 full- or part-time workers.
That left U.S. taxpayers holding the financial bag for nearly three-quarters of that loan guarantee, about $390 million.
But now Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns, chairmen of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Oversight Subcommittee, have been examining the company's financials and the possibility of waste and fraud. Since its 2005 founding, it seems that Solyndra has never made a profit and its own auditor had raised serious questions that did not slow or stop the immense guarantee's approval by the Obama administration.
Last week Upton and Stearns wrote Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The Republicans said:
While we understand the purpose of the Loan Guarantee Program is to help private companies engaging in clean energy products to obtain financing by providing loan guarantees, subsequent events raise questions if Solyndra was the right candidate to receive a loan guarantee in excess of half a billion dollars.
Oh, one other thing: The majority owner of Solyndra is George Kaiser. He's an Oklahoma billionaire. He was also a bundler, a major fundraiser, for the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
But that's probably coincidence.
-- Andrew Malcolm
It doeasn't appear that Andrew Malcom has his facts right. Apparently there has been no taxpayer expense. Read below:
ReplyDeleteDOE loan chief Jonathan Silver came out in support for Solyndra when we talked to him last year. He pointed out that Solyndra was planning to close the factory, it just happened sooner than intended. Solyndra has not been granted any loan funds and is reportedly on track to produce 300 megawatts of panels annually, which is higher than the 210 megawatts estimated at the project inception.
We asked the DOE for a response on the scrutiny on Solyndra lately, and here’s the statement provided by the press office:
“The Department of Energy conducts extensive and ongoing monitoring for all projects that receive loan guarantees. The loan guarantee for Solyndra is supporting the construction of a manufacturing facility which is well underway, and is, in fact, 4-8 weeks ahead of schedule. To date, the company has hired 3,000 construction workers and over 1,000 employees to fill permanent positions. We anticipate the project will continue as planned, however, we take our responsibility to protect taxpayer interests very seriously, and will continue to work with Solyndra to find appropriate solutions to any challenges it may face.”
http://daringminds.com/new/solyndra-and-government-support-for-cleantech-under-fire/
Was a loan guarantee offered by he government? If so, and they go bankrupt will the creditors have a claim on the guarantee? Or, is the whole thing made up?
ReplyDeleteIs it just a coincidence that a money bundler for Obama is involved.
I don't much care for the government choosing winners and losers.
See this article from January 2011 in the Contra Costa Times "Fremont's high-flying Solyndra hits a rough patch" -http://www.contracostatimes.com/business/ci_17221170?source=rss&nclick_check=1