Obama praised Solar Cell firm goes bust..costs tax payers $500 million

In the case of Solyndra it was expensive and stupid. Any better?

 

Expensive is a relative term. Money from taxpayers went to construction worker's paychecks, high tech equipment makers, local sales taxes etc etc and the facility didn't burn down, there is still infrastructure value there. It does need to be retooled. And, it only accounted for 1.3% of the program appropriations.

Yeah it is a failure, but it's not like we just lost a pallet of money. The significance is being amplified for political effect.
Seed money for green energy now is the equivalent of seed money for information technology in the 1970's. Solyndra was just a start-up that didn't make it. But Green Energy will become indispensable. Unless somebody cracks fusion.

 

Solar energy accounts for about 3% of the US's electricity generation. We don't need to be giving billions of dollars to wind and solar companies. The money needs to go toward nuclear. It is the only clean or green green energy source actually capable of providing the power necessary to run the electric grid.

Solar and wind are pipe dreams at this point. Coal electricity production as a percent of the whole here in Texas has gone down lately due in part to wind and solar, but that dip is much smaller when compared to the change when the South Texas and Commanche Peak nuclear power plants were built.

 

Hey, I'm buying myself a big mac for $4. Oh, geez, i got taxed by McDonalds for $4!

Stop taxing me McDonalds!

 

Didn't Obama talk about creating nuclear powerplants during the debates? This is something I'd totally be on board with.

 

Hey, I'm old and I don't have any kids so I don't have to give a crap if the sky turns brown or oceans and temperatures rise, so go ahead and ***** where you eat.

 

In 1990, here in Texas nuclear energy accounted for about 5% of the state's total electricity generation, and coal accounted for about 43% of generation. Today, nuclear energy accounts for about 10%, and coal accounts for about 35%. Natural gas is the primary energy (electricity) source in Texas at about 45%.

The last of the four nuclear reactors in Texas to come on line happened in 1993. There have been plans to put in 2 new reactors at the South Texas Project in Bay City, Texas since about 2004.

 

I'm a big fan of nuclear too, that makes two of us.

By the way, I think the US government has around 13 billion spent on Yucca Mountain.

 

Of course the stimulus to the solar energy industry did work despite Solyndra.

 

Isn't $500 Million the amount the pentagon spends on a hammer or something?

 

oh my.

wonder if they gave them additional funds to keep payroll going past the election?
--
Solyndra: Energy Dept. pushed firm to keep layoffs quiet until after midterms

By Carol D. Leonnig and Joe Stephens, Tuesday, November 15, 10:46 AM

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. But a year ago, in October 2010, the solar panel manufacturer was quickly running out of money and had warned the Energy Department it would need emergency cash to avoid having to shut down.

The new e-mails about the layoff announcement were released Tuesday morning as part of a House Energy and Commerce committee memo, provided in advance of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s scheduled testimony before the investigative committee Thursday.

Solyndra’s chief executive warned the Energy Department on Oct. 25, 2010, that he intended to announce worker layoffs Oct. 28. He said he was spurred by numerous calls from reporters and potential investors about rumors the firm was in financial trouble and was planning to lay off workers and close one of its two plants.

But in an Oct. 30, 2010, e-mail, advisers to Solyndra’s primary investor, Argonaut Equity, explain that the Energy Department had strongly urged the company to put off the layoff announcement until Nov. 3. The midterm elections were held Nov. 2, and led to Republicans taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“DOE continues to be cooperative and have indicated that they will fund the November draw on our loan (app. $40 million) but have not committed to December yet,” a Solyndra investor adviser wrote Oct. 30. “They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd – oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”

Solyndra has become a rallying cry for Republicans who argue Obama used his clean energy initiative to steer valuable loans to benefit his friends and donors. Argonaut is a private equity firm of George Kaiser, who advised his investor deputies on how to approach the White House to help Solyndra with its financial problems.

Earlier in October, Solyndra executives and its investors had warned the agency that they needed emergency financing to keep the company operating after December, and were working with the agency to restructure and ease the terms of its half-billion-dollar federal loan.

On Oct. 25, 2010, Solyndra chief executive Brian Harrison e-mailed the energy department’s loan staff to explain that Solyndra “has received some press inquiries about rumors of problems (one of them with quite accurate information) and we have received in bound calls from potential investors. Both of these data points indicate the story is starting to leak outside Solyndra.”

Harrison went on to state that he would “like to go forward with the internal communication [to employees regarding layoffs] on Thursday, October 28.”

Harrison’s e-mail was forwarded to program director, Jonathan Silver, who then alerted White House climate change czar Carol Browner and Vice President Biden’s point person on stimulus, Ron Klain. Browner asked for more information about the announcement, and Chu’s chief of staff explained he had left a voicemail message on her cellphone.

On Nov. 3, 2010, Solyndra announced it would lay off 40 workers and 150 contractors and shut down its Fab 1 factory. The department agreed to continue giving Solyndra installments of its federal loan despite the company’s failure to meet key terms of the loan, and in February restructured its loan to give investors a chance to recover $75 million in new money they put into the company before taxpayers would be repaid.

Silver resigned from the agency last month.

 

candidate Obama, leaves Kaiser's home w/ a check for $50k.

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://www.newson6.com/global/video/videoplayer.js?rnd=299166;hostDomain=www.newson6.com;playerWidth=630;playerHeight=355;isShowIcon=true;clipId=6214890;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=overlay'></script>

 

easy come, easy go.

--
Battery maker Ener1, a DOE loan recipient, goes bankrupt
25


By Steve Hargreaves @CNNMoneyTech January 26, 2012: 5:15 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Electric car battery maker Ener1 filed for bankruptcy Thursday, three years after receiving a $118.5 million grant from the U.S. government.
Ener1 (HEVV), which makes a variety of energy storage devices under different subsidiaries, is the parent company of EnerDel, the car battery division that received the government grant to build a manufacturing plant in Indianapolis.

The company said the "voluntarily initiated" bankruptcy filing won't impact any of its subsidiaries, including EnerDel, and that operations in its factories will continue as normal.
"The restructuring will not adversely impact their employees, customers and suppliers," the company said in a press release.

 

edit, never mind, i misrread. we'll have to see if the loan is resturctured.

 

Solyndra was news because of the connection to Obama fundraisers, allegations of failure to appropriately monitor (no idea if these allegations were sound) and as significant jobs and money was lost.

So far...none of this with Ener.

Suffering from a wee bit of premature speculation, bass man???

 

agreed. but the rush for clean energy is also a story

 

I'm not sure he read anything beyond the headline.

 

So, the subsidiary that received the money is not affected, the parent company is expecting a new infusion of investor money, and this is a reorg bankruptcy and not a going out of business one. Here's the entire article...

 

rimrocker that was my edit. however you really have to look at the financials which are public. they sometimes tell how much percentage the sub is of the parent. sometimes its there only business, i would assume looking really quick its by far the largest sub based on loan size and overall balance sheet.

 

I don't think so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8nsh10PRc8&sns=em