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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on August 31, 2011, 11:41:34 AM
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Solyndra Filing a Disaster for Obama
By Scott McGrew
Wednesday, Aug 31, 2011
U.S. President Barack Obama heads inside to deliver a speech after meeting with construction workers building a new Solyndra solar panel factory May 26, 2010 in Fremont, California. President Obama toured Solyndra Inc., a growing solar power equipment facility that is adding jobs as they expand their operation.
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."
Find this article at:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Solyndra-Filing-a-Disaster-for-Obama-128816968.html
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Solyndra Filing a Disaster for Obama
By Scott McGrew
Wednesday, Aug 31, 2011
U.S. President Barack Obama heads inside to deliver a speech after meeting with construction workers building a new Solyndra solar panel factory May 26, 2010 in Fremont, California. President Obama toured Solyndra Inc., a growing solar power equipment facility that is adding jobs as they expand their operation.
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."
Find this article at:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Solyndra-Filing-a-Disaster-for-Obama-128816968.html
Only 2.6 million fails? Did YOU take a vacation to Martha's Vineyard? I think you missed a few.
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Yeah, heard this on the radio this morning.
This is what gives "green" a bad name. I bet there was tons of shady dealings with that money.
We need to stay on course with green research, but we DO NOT need to subsidize green energy that cant turn a profit.
500 million wasted. >:(
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Study: Stimulus Funds Primarily Used to Poach Workers, Not Hire Unemployed
12:14 PM, Aug 31, 2011 •
By MARK HEMINGWAY
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has just released an important new study on the hiring practices of firms that used stimulus funds. It's fairly comprehensive, based on over 1,300 surveys of managers and employees. There's been very little good empirical data on the stimulus thus far, so the study contains a lot of valuable insights. Among the findings by authors Dan Rothschild and Garrett Jones:
Hiring isn’t the same as net job creation. In our survey, just 42.1 percent of the workers hired at ARRA-receiving organizations after January 31, 2009, were unemployed at the time they were hired (Appendix C). More were hired directly from other organizations (47.3 percent of post-ARRA workers), while a handful came from school (6.5%) or from outside the labor force (4.1%)(Figure 2). Thus, there was an almost even split between “job creating” and “job switching.” This suggests just how hard it is for Keynesian job creation to work in a modern, expertise-based economy: even in a weak economy, organizations hired the employed about as often as the unemployed.
Put simply, stimulus funds caused more job shifting than job creation. Another key finding? Union-friendly wage protections kill jobs:
Among organizations required to pay prevailing wages, 38.2 percent thought that they could have hired workers at wages below the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage (Figure 3) while another 17 percent were unsure. This meant higher costs for the federal government and fewer jobs created.
The idea that the Stimulus' Davis-Bacon requirements undercut the supposed job creation benefits of government spending isn't a new revelation. However, this is pretty definitive confirmation this was one of major reasons the stimulus failed to live up to job creation expectations.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/study-stimulus-funds-primarily-used-poach-workers-not-hire-unemployed_592041.html
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Rush has been rattling off solar companies that have been dying, left and right: SpectaWatt, EverGreen Solar, Beohana, etc.
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Rush has been rattling off solar companies that have been dying, left and right: SpectaWatt, EverGreen Solar, Beohana, etc.
Because green energy is a scam! Its AMWAY on steroids - overpriced, piss poor quality, and based on a lie.
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Because green energy is a scam! Its AMWAY on steroids - overpriced, piss poor quality, and based on a lie.
Nice comparison
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Nice comparison
I know!
I have attended a few meetings at the behest of people trying to sell me on that crap and see the same nonsense with "green energy"
BTW - Bob nailed it with this and I think this is his best ever.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/solyndra-california-solar-company-green-energy_n_943571.html
Ha ha ha ha - THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT TO GIVE ANOTHER TERM?
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Obama = Ultimate Ponzi Scammer
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I know!
I have attended a few meetings at the behest of people trying to sell me on that crap and see the same nonsense with "green energy"
BTW - Bob nailed it with this and I think this is his best ever.
BUMP for anyone to refute one thing bob says.
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Solar company to file for bankruptcy despite $535 million loan guarantee (Hussein's Midas touch)
The Hill ^ | 8/31/11 | Andrew Restuccia
Solar company to file for bankruptcy despite $535 million loan guarantee
By Andrew Restuccia - 08/31/11 12:45 PM ET
“Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion,” Solyndra's CEO said.
A California-based solar company that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will shut down.
The company, Solyndra Inc., said Wednesday it would suspend its manufacturing operations and lay off 1,100 employees effective immediately. The company said it intends to file a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
“Regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months created significant near-term excess supply and price erosion,” Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison said in a statement. “Raising incremental capital in this environment was not possible. This was an unexpected outcome and is most unfortunate.”
The announcement comes at a tough time for the solar industry, which has faced free-falling solar panel prices.
But the Obama administration has doubled-down on its investments in the industry. The Energy Department finalized last week an $852 million loan guarantee for a separate California solar project sponsored by NextEra Energy. Earlier in August, DOE finalized a $197 million loan guarantee for solar manufacturing facilities in Oregon and California.
Solyndra received the $535 million stimulus loan guarantee from the Energy Department in 2009 to help finance the construction of a new plant to manufacture solar panels.
The Energy Department said Wednesday that it is “disappointed” that Solyndra is shutting down its manufacturing operations, but added, “We continue to believe the clean energy jobs race is one that America can, must and will win.”
“We have always recognized that not every one of the innovative companies supported by our loans and loan guarantees would succeed, but we can’t stop investing in game-changing technologies that are key to America’s leadership in the global economy,” said Dan Leistikow, director of the office of public affairs, in a blog post Wednesday.
Leistikow called Solyndra a “once very promising company that has increased its sales revenue by 2000 percent in three years and sold more than 1000 installations in 20 countries.”
Republicans have blasted the Obama administration for approving the loan guarantee to the company, which has faced financial hurdles for months.
Solyndra announced last year that it would close a plant, lay off employees and delay the expansion of its newest facility. It also canceled plans to go public.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans launched an investigation into the loan guarantee in February, alleging that the administration didn’t adequately vet the company’s financial situation.
As part of the investigation, Republicans in March requested a slew of documents from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) related to the loan guarantee.
After OMB refused to provide all the documents, Republicans on the House Energy panel’s Oversight and Investigations subcommittee voted in July to issue a subpoena. OMB in August agreed to provide all the requested documents.
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Obama blows $535 million dollars on a crony capitalist scheme declaring bankruptcy today (updated)
American Thinker ^ | August 31, 2011 | Ed Laswky
NBC is reporting on yet another green scheme going belly-up and this one is a big one. Scott McGrew reports:
Solyndra, a major manufacturer of solar technology in Fremont, has shut its doors, according to employees at the campus.
"I was told by a security guard to get my [stuff] and leave," one employee said. The company employs a little more than 1,000 employees worldwide, according to its website.
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.
The company has announced just a short while ago it is declaring bankruptcy.
I have written numerous times that Solyndra is a prime example of the foolish green schemes Barack Obama and his team have been promoting across America. Sadly, this promotion has been more than just Obama-like airy platitudes about moon shots and being world leaders. The taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars that Obama extended as loan guarantees. The handwriting was on the wall even before Obama handed our money over as the firm's own accountants warned that the company was in dire financial straits and was unlikely to continue as a "going concern."
Solyndra had as an investor a big bundler for Barack Obama -- Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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Obama Labor Boss Buys Canadian-Built Car
Says purchase was to show support for American workers
By Paul Bedard
Posted: August 31, 2011
http://www.usnews.com/news/washington-whispers/articles/2011/08/31/obama-labor-boss-buys-canadian-built-car
To show her support for American workers, President Obama's labor secretary, Hilda Solis, has junked the standard black limo and purchased a new Chevrolet Equinox to ride around Washington in. The problem: the crossover SUV is built and assembled in Canada from parts also made in Canada.
Solis proudly arrived at a media breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor today in the shiny silver vehicle, which she has dubbed the "bullet." She was asked about why she traded the standard-issue limo for the SUV. "What better example could I set if I encouraged my staff to go and purchase and seek how we could acquire a vehicle that would for me would send a signal that we're for supporting our American workers, American-made products, fuel efficient as well," she told the Monitor's Dave Cook, who provided this video of her answer.
[Check out political cartoons about the economy.]
Solis added that she was inspired to buy the Chevy because of the pride she saw in American auto workers during trips to U.S. car and truck plants. She said that she was wowed by "the pride that they take making our automobiles here in America."
The car is made at two Canadian plants and has been so popular that General Motors has been hiring more workers in Canada to keep up with demand. [See who's in Obama's inner circle.]
A company official noted that the profits do come back to the United States.
Solis did note that the Equinox, which she's driven once, is a nice ride. "It drives well. It's a good family car. Its not too big and I think women really like it."
Update: When Whispers notified her office that her “American-made” car was actually Canadian, Labor spokesman Carl Fillichio said, “Modern automobile manufacturing is a global industry and General Motors is a company whose reach extends far beyond the boundaries of the United States. Cars assembled here in the U.S. are made from globally sourced parts, just as cars assembled in other countries utilize parts made in America. Not only is the Equinox the second fastest selling SUV in America—a good sign for the overall health of the U.S. auto industry—66 percent of its parts were made in America. That’s up from about 50 percent just a few years ago.”
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Just think, if we tax the rich even more then Obama will have MORE money to spend on awesome companies like Solyndra! What a stunning display of economic mastery! Solyndra #1! Solyndra #1!
Fucking pathetic. This is what happens when you have a thug president rewarding his thug cronies for their donations.
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Just think, if we tax the rich even more then Obama will have MORE money to spend on awesome companies like Solyndra! What a stunning display of economic mastery! Solyndra #1! Solyndra #1!
Fucking pathetic. This is what happens when you have a thug president rewarding his thug cronies for their donations.
Wait till Issa gives them an anal probe on their finances!
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http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_18795739?nclick_check=1
what a friggin mess.
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Solar company that got federal loan shuts down (BANKRUPT!)
msnbc ^ | 8/31/2011 | KEVIN FREKING, JASON DEAREN/AP
Posted on August 31, 2011 10:04:47 PM EDT by tobyhill
A California solar-panel manufacturer once touted by President Barack Obama as a beneficiary of his administration's economic policies — as well as a half-billion-dollar federal loan — is laying off 1,100 workers and filing for bankruptcy.
Solyndra LLC of Fremont, Calif., had become the poster child for government investment in green technology. The president visited the company in May 2010 and noted that Solyndra expected to hire 1,000 workers to manufacture solar panels. Other state and federal officials such as former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Energy Secretary Steven Chu also visited the company's facilities.
But hard times have hit the nation's solar industry. Solyndra is the third solar company to seek bankruptcy protection this month. Officials said Wednesday that the global economy as well as unfavorable conditions in the solar industry combined to force the company to suspend its manufacturing operations.
The price for solar panels has tanked in part because of heavy competition from Chinese companies, dropping by about 42 percent this year.
Republicans have been looking into the Solyndra loan for months. The House Energy and Commerce Committee subpoenaed documents relating to the loan from the White House Office of Management and Budget. GOP Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Cliff Stearns of Florida issued a joint statement on Wednesday saying it was clear that Solyndra was a dubious investment.
"We smelled a rat from the onset," the two lawmakers said.
Shortly after the company's announcement, it became clear that the bankruptcy would serve as further ammunition to criticize an economic stimulus bill that provided seed money for solar startups — even though officials said interest in providing Solyndra with guaranteed government loans was first sought under the Bush administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
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Solyndra solar plant closes; $535 million vanishes; Obama curse strikes again; UPDATE: Bankrupt
Pajamas Media ^ | 8/31/2011 | P J Tattler
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.
When workers showed up at the Solyndra solar-panel factory in Fremont, California, this morning — they were ordered to leave by guards, and then given instructions on how to pick up their final checks. In other words, the dream is over:
Solyndra Shutting Its Doors
Solyndra, a major manufacturer of solar technology in Fremont, has shut its doors, according to employees at the campus.
“I was told by a security guard to get my [stuff] and leave,” one employee said. The company employs a little more than 1,000 employees worldwide, according to its website.
Shortly after it opened a massive $700 million facility, it canceled plans for a public stock offering earlier this year and warned it would be in significant trouble if federal loan guarantees did not go through.
The company has said it will make a statement at 9am California time, though it’s not clear what that statement will be. An NBC Bay Area photographer on the scene reports security guards are not letting visitors on campus. He says “people are standing around in disbelief.” The employees have been given yellow envelopes with instructions on how to get their last checks.
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.
Here’s what Obama had to say about Solyndra’s rosy outlook:
It’s here, that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter, more prosperous future.
Remember, he said this just one year ago.
Basically, the federal government just invested $535 million of our taxpayer funds in a loser company that went belly up in only one year. And that whole investment — poof! Gone.
As an investor, Obama is either cursed, or perhaps merely blinded by ideology.
UPDATE I:
Maybe this is a clue as to why Obama gave $535 million to Solyndra in the first place — it was a union stronghold:
UPDATE II:
Solyndra Bankruptcy Announcement
Solyndra LLC, the American manufacturer of innovative cylindrical solar systems for commercial rooftops today announced that global economic and solar industry market conditions have forced the Company to suspend its manufacturing operations. Solyndra intends to file a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code while it evaluates options, including a sale of the business and licensing of its advanced CIGS technology and manufacturing expertise. As a result of the suspension of operations approximately 1,100 full-time and temporary employees are being laid off effective immediately.
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Solyndra closes Fremont plant - stimulus hopes dim
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | September 1, 2011 | David R. Baker, Carolyn Said
In a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to create green jobs, solar-cell maker Solyndra announced Wednesday that it will close its remaining Fremont factory, lay off its 1,100 employees and file for bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy represents a high-profile failure for a federal stimulus program that gives loan guarantees to green-tech manufacturers.
Solyndra was the first company to win one of the guarantees, receiving $535 million in 2009.
The federal government must now try to recover its investment through Solyndra's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, or taxpayers will be on the hook.
Employees were not offered severance and were told their final checks will be mailed to them, James said. "Usually you get a notice and time to prepare," he said. "I've never applied for unemployment in my life, but I will do it now."
Echoing comments being made by Republican critics, he added: "Obama put $535 million into the place - where'd it go?"
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
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;)
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/business/global/us-so...
U.S. Solar Company Bankruptcies a Boon for China
HONG KONG — The bankruptcy of three U.S. solar power companies in the past month, including Solyndra of California on Wednesday, has left China’s industry with a dominant sales position, almost three-fifths of the world’s production capacity and rapidly declining costs.
Some U.S., Japanese and European companies still have a technological edge, although seldom a cost advantage, over Chinese rivals, according to industry analysts. But loans at very low rates from state-owned banks in Beijing, cheap or free land from local and provincial governments across China, huge economies of scale and other cost advantages have transformed China from a minor player in the solar power industry into the main producer of an increasingly competitive source of electricity.
“The top-tier Chinese firms are kind of the benchmark now,” said Shayle Kann, a managing director of solar power studies at GTM Research, a renewable energy market analysis firm based in Boston. “Pricing is determined by where they price, and everyone else prices at a premium or discount to them.”
In addition to Solyndra, Evergreen Solar of Massachusetts and SpectraWatt of New York also filed for bankruptcy in August. BP Solar shut down its factory in Frederick, Maryland, last spring. Those bankruptcies and closings represent almost a fifth of the solar panel manufacturing capacity in the United States, according to GTM Research.
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Solyndra Bankruptcy Could Dry Up Solar Industry Funding (the rookie Hussein pimped bad loan)
CBS Local ^ | 9/01/11
Solyndra Bankruptcy Could Dry Up Solar Industry Funding
September 1, 2011 8:37 AM
FREMONT (KCBS) – While many venture capitalists remain bullish about solar companies, a Republican call for further investigation of how bankrupt Solyndra spent millions in federal loans could mean less public money for the solar industry.
In February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee looked into how Solyndra won approval in 2009 for a $535 million Department of Energy loan guarantee. That investigation focused on one of the company’s investors, George Kaiser, who contributor to President Barack Obama’s campaign.
Energy Department officials said the company’s application was carefully vetted, and pointed out that investing in startup companies always carries risk.
(Excerpt) Read more at sanfrancisco.cbslocal.co m ...
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Crazy video.
WTF?
I guess this is perfect example of Obamanomics at work.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/09/01/stimulus-funded_solar_power_company_solyndra_goes_bankrupt.html
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Solyndra Bankruptcy Could Dry Up Solar Industry Funding (the rookie Hussein pimped bad loan)
CBS Local ^ | 9/01/11
Solyndra Bankruptcy Could Dry Up Solar Industry Funding
September 1, 2011 8:37 AM
FREMONT (KCBS) – While many venture capitalists remain bullish about solar companies, a Republican call for further investigation of how bankrupt Solyndra spent millions in federal loans could mean less public money for the solar industry.
In February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee looked into how Solyndra won approval in 2009 for a $535 million Department of Energy loan guarantee. That investigation focused on one of the company’s investors, George Kaiser, who contributor to President Barack Obama’s campaign.
Energy Department officials said the company’s application was carefully vetted, and pointed out that investing in startup companies always carries risk.
(Excerpt) Read more at sanfrancisco.cbslocal.co m ...
Think about how bad things like this will get now that corporations can donate to campaigns with out limits.
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Think about how bad things like this will get now that corporations can donate to campaigns with out limits.
It means the GOP can match the Dems and their union buddies' contributions. As long as the rules are the same for both sides, I don't have an issue with it.
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Obama should have defied the rules of capitalism and intervened to save this company, like Bush when he pick and chose which banks to bail out, and which to allow to fail.
Why does obama have to respect the rules of capitalism so much? WTF mate?
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It means the GOP can match the Dems and their union buddies' contributions. As long as the rules are the same for both sides, I don't have an issue with it.
Good. Because me and Pfizer are going to the bar later.
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Bankrupt solar company with fed backing has cozy ties to Obama admin
The Daily Caller ^ | 9/1/11 | C.J. Ciaramella
A solar energy company that intends to file 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.
Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser, a key Obama backer who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the president’s election campaign, is one of Solyndra’s primary investors. Kaiser himself donated $53,500 to Obama’s 2008 election campaign, split between the DSCC and Obama For America. Kaiser also made several visits to the White House and appeared at some White House events next to Obama officials.
Campaign finance records show Kaiser and Solyndra executives and board members donated $87,050 total to Obama’s election campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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It means the GOP can match the Dems and their union buddies' contributions. As long as the rules are the same for both sides, I don't have an issue with it.
I do on both accounts because it doesn't solve the real problem: Our representatives are not accountable to the people that vote for them.
that George Keiser didn't need a union to do what he did. Giving him unlimited funding only opens the door for more of the same.
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Guys, try to keep it down.
Me and my buddy Microsoft are trying to chill.
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Solyndra's lobbyists
by Timothy P. Carney Senior Political Columnist
Follow on Twitter:@tpcarney
In this May 26, 2010
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/solyndras-lobbyists
President Barack Obama, with Solyndra Chief Executive Officer Chris Gronet, looks at a solar panel, during a tour of Solyndra, Inc., a solar panel manufacturing facility, in Fremont, Calif. Solyndra received a $535 million loan from the U.S. government has announced layoffs of 1,100 workers and plans to file for bankruptcy. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)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.
I've spent a good bit of time studying companies' lobbyists, and Solyndra has a pretty impressive lineup, on par with much bigger companies. Here are a few:
In July, Solyndra retained the powerful Glover Park Group, where the company's lobbyists include top Max Baucus aide and Environment & Public Works Committee staffer Catherine Ransom, longtime Republican aide Alex Mistri, and Energy and Commerce staffer (and former John Kerry Legislative Director) Gregg Rothschild.
The company's in-house lobbyists are former top Republican Hill aides Joe Pasetti and Victoria Sanville.
Solyndra's biggest lobbying contract is with McAllister & Quinn, co-founded by Steny Hoyer's chief of staff Andy Quinn. Steve Ham, another former Hoyer staffer at McA&Q, is on the Solyndra account, as is Al D'Amato aide Chris Fish, and former American writer Kyle Winslow. Gotta love it when young cub writer jump from liberal magazines to K Street.
As befits any company seeking green subsidies, Solyndra retained McBee Strategic Consulting. Steve McBee, a former Dem Approps aide, helped lower the standards for federal green energy financing before signing Solyndra as a client and getting Solyndra the financing under these lower standards. Former Democratic Energy & Natural Resources staffer Angela Becker-Dippmann was also on the Solyndra account.
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Obama should have defied the rules of capitalism and intervened to save this company, like Bush when he pick and chose which banks to bail out, and which to allow to fail.
Why does obama have to respect the rules of capitalism so much? WTF mate?
Are you implying that he didn't defy the rules of capitalism when he gifted them $500 million in taxpayer dollars?
How does a "successful" company burn through $500 million in two years?
This is easily one of the most pathetic and embarrassing things I've ever seen. Got to love the fact that just a year ago President Downgrade Foodstamps-A-Lot gave a speech touting how awesome Solyndra was.
Someone should audit this firm to see how much of that $500 million: A) Got pocketed by the executives and B) Kicked back to the DNC in donations.
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Where's Team Keynesian to defend this? That clown Straw Man argues that we need to spend more money like this to save the economy.
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Not even kcballer can defend this.
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The Department of Energy is not a business
The Washington Examiner ^ | 9/1/11 | Conn Carroll
Posted on September 1, 2011 8:31:38 PM EDT by Nachum
September 1, 2011 3:26pm 0 Comments The Department of Energy is not a business byConn Carroll Senior Editorial Writer Follow on Twitter:@conncarroll
Asked at today's White House press briefing, "What does it say about the President's so far as he gets ready for this new plan, that this company he promoted and gave government money too has gone bankrupt and is laying off 1100 people." Carney answered:
The whole purpose of this program, which has a broad portfolio of many companies that are doing well was to invest in cutting edge technology. ... There are no guarantees in the business world about success and failure. That is just the way business works. And everyone recognizes that. And that is why there are over 40 companies, as I understand it, 40 guarantees involved in this program that merit looking at. You can not measure the success based on one company or the other.
This would actually be a decent answer if Carney worked for a venture capital firm and not the federal government.
Of course not every investment works out. As Milton Friedman liked to say, "Capitalism is a profit and loss system. The loss part is just as important as the profit part." Profits and losses send signals to entrepreneurs and investors informing them where best to place their resources.
(Excerpt) Read more at campaign2012.washingtone xaminer.com ...
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House energy committee steps up investigation of Solyndra
The Daily Caller ^ | 9/1/11 | C.J. Ciaramella
Posted on September 1, 2011 9:21:22 PM EDT by Nachum
On Thursday the House Energy and Commerce Committee ramped up its ongoing investigation of the federal government’s $535 million loan to Solyndra, a solar energy company that recently announced it will file for bankruptcy.
In a letter to the White House, committee Chairman Fred Upton and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns requested a scheduled briefing on the matter by no later than September 12 and asked for all documents related to the loan guarantee between Solyndra and the White House.
In 2009, Solyndra was the recipient of a half-billion-dollar loan through the Department of Energy, funded by stimulus monies. The company was touted as a model of President Obama’s green energy initiative. But despite heavy backing by the federal government, the company struggled to meet expectations, falling fall short of the 4,000 or so jobs it was projected to create.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Obamafail.
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The Administration's Solar Eclipse
IBD Editorials ^ | September 1, 2011 | Staff
Posted on September 1, 2011 7:25:10 PM EDT by Kaslin
Power Sources: A solar panel manufacturer touted by the president as a symbol of his successful green energy policies files for bankruptcy and cuts a thousand green jobs. Maybe its time to drill, baby, drill.
During a visit to Solyndra Inc.'s Fremont, Calif., facility in spring of 2010, President Obama boasted of what the company was going to do with the $535 million in loan guarantees his stimulus package provided.
"We can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra," he said. "Through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations. This new factory is the result of those loans."
Loans, by the way, taxpayers are on the hook for as Solyndra on Wednesday announced it is filing for bankruptcy and laying off its 1,100 workers, 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.
Two months before Obama's glowing speech, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report expressing concern regarding a company that had accumulated losses of $558 million in its five-year lifetime and which had "negative cash flows since inception." There was, the accounting firm said, "substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
This is the perfect example of obamanomics. Fail.
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Source: The Washington Post
House Republicans on Thursday intensified their investigation into Solyndra, a California solar-panel manufacturer favored by the Obama administration that shut down this week.
Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee said they are seeking copies of all communications between the White House and Solyndra regarding a $535 million loan guarantee by the Energy Department. They are also seeking communications between the White House and investors in the company.
Solyndra was backed in part by capital from funds associated with George Kaiser, a Tulsa billionaire and Democratic fundraiser.
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee, wrote to the White House, “We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra’s application, and communicated with DOE and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials. Documents received by the Committee also show that DOE and OMB officials were aware of the White House’s interest in the Solyndra loan guarantee.”
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-solyndra-f...
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Obama's Bad Bet on Green Energy
By Rich Lowry
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.
Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review.
© 2011 by King Features Syndicate.
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I wonder if the execs paid themselves bonuses last year.
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Think about how bad things like this will get now that corporations can donate to campaigns with out limits.
Oz, its very admirable that you refuse you acknowledge that green technology is a complete scam and that the stimulus was basically a slush fund for the left, but can we agree on one thing from this thread?
Ideologically, there is one side that should sustain 100% of the blame for this boondoggle.
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Oz, its very admirable that you refuse you acknowledge that green technology is a complete scam and that the stimulus was basically a slush fund for the left, but can we agree on one thing from this thread?
Ideologically, there is one side that should sustain 100% of the blame for this boondoggle.
Show me exactly were I don't think green technology is a scam.
But here some things I said recently regarding green energy:
Yeah, heard this on the radio this morning.
This is what gives "green" a bad name. I bet there was tons of shady dealings with that money.
We need to stay on course with green research, but we DO NOT need to subsidize green energy that cant turn a profit.
500 million wasted. >:(
Galaxy warming?
I believe in green research but not current green application that doesn't turn a profit such as this latest collapse with solar in Fremont.
I also think things like a $10 " green" pail is complete BS also. It's almost criminal profiteering lol.
So I don't know where you come up with some of your conclusions about my view on green tech.
As far as a party being 100% responsible? Hard to say when the repubs do all kinds of stupid shit also.
That's the problem, IMO, the repubs aren't really conservative when they bailed out those banks. Twice.
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Investigators Probe White House Role in Massive Energy Loan
ABC News ^ | 2 Sep 2011 | MATTHEW MOSK and RONNIE GREENE
House investigators said they have uncovered evidence that White House officials became personally involved in an Energy Department review of a hot-button $535 million loan guarantee to the now-failed California solar company Solyndra.
The allegation surfaced in a letter House Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) sent to the White House Thursday night, saying he planned to accelerate efforts to understand an investment deal that may have left taxpayers out half a billion dollars.
"We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra's application and communicated with [Department of Energy] and Office of Management and Budget officials during the course of their review," the letter says.
Thursday's letter, which calls on the White House to turn over correspondence between administration officials, Solyndra and its investors, presents the most pointed suggestion that the White House had direct involvement in the financing.
"How did this company, without maybe the best economic plan, all of a sudden get to the head of the line?" Upton told ABC News in an interview this week. "We want to know who made this decision ... and we're not going to stop until we get those answers."
READ: Solyndra Collapse a 'Waste' of Half a Billion By Obama, GOP Critics Say
White House officials have said in interviews that they did not intervene in the Solyndra deal or others benefiting companies backed by supporters of the president. Yet the administration, from Obama to the Department of Energy, has very publicly praised the loan guarantee.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
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a lot of people fall for the global warming nonsense. Al gore is a very good salesman.
Top "repubs" Mitt and Palin have fallen prey to this liberal thinking in recent years. Luckily, Perry, a former dem lawmaker and al gore staffer, has been consistent on the issue. For a solid 3 years now.
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I wonder if it's money that makes them see the need for green? :D
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I wonder if it's money that makes them see the need for green? :D
it's sad. i like CTs and social causes at times...
but even a dumbshite like me has seen global warming as a hoax since minute one. Alex jones has been correct all along on this one too. All a scam to get paid.
Why do people like FOX opinionist Sarah palin and kenyan imposter Obama continue to spew the nonsense? hard to say. greed, ignorance, and ideology.
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I wonder if it's money that makes them see the need for green? :D
I'm quoting the wrong response in this thread, but if I'm not mistaken ( and unless you deleted your own post) you supported the auto bailouts in the thread that 33366 started about Obama's war against coal.
Your rationale was that the bailout/ government takeover saved jobs. Yet, you had no problem with Obama regulating the coal industry into bankruptcy-- even though it would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Now you say that Republicans were wrong for approving the bank bailouts?
Not flaming here, just trying to figure out what your position is on these issues. You seem to be all over the place.
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Did Obama Administration Cut Corners For a Green Energy Company? (Solyndra)
ABC News & iWatch ^ | May 24, 2011 | By MATTHEW MOSK and RONNIE GREENE
________________________ _________
The Obama administration bypassed procedural steps meant to protect taxpayers as it hurried to approve an energy loan guarantee to a politically-connected California solar power startup, ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News have learned …
The Energy Department in March 2009 announced its intention to award Solyndra Inc. a $535 million loan guarantee before receiving final copies of outside reviews typically used to vet such deals. ...
The loan guarantee, the administration's first for a clean energy project, benefited a company whose prime financial backers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a "bundler" of campaign donations. Kaiser raised at least $50,000 for the president's 2008 election effort. ...
Several political allies of the president have ties to companies receiving Energy Department loans, grants or loan guarantees. For instance, the venture firm of another top Obama bundler, Steve Westly, has financially supported companies that won more than half a billion dollars in energy grants and loans during President Obama's time in office, iWatch News and ABC News reported in March. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
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Questions Raised After DOE Hides Costs Of Energy Projects
By Yuliya Chernova, Of DOW JONES VENTUREWIRE
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The Department of Energy has removed from the public eye the total cost of renewable energy projects backed by billions of dollars in federal loans, in response to requests from recipients.
The loan guarantee program, which has come under fire by a Republican- controlled Congress, has committed more than $30 billion to 42 renewable energy projects since 2009, when the federal stimulus bill allocated capital for this purpose. Each project is listed in detail on the DOE's website, but the costs were recently taken down.
The move is unusual for the Obama administration, which in general has been more forthcoming online with government spending data than previous administrations. However, some critics, especially from Republicans, have complained that the DOE has withheld key information regarding the loan guarantee program in particular.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the first loan made under the program in 2009 for solar-panel maker Solyndra Inc., which said on Wednesday that it plans to file for bankruptcy and is laying off 1,100 people.
Critics of the program have said that some of the projects could be too risky, especially considering that taxpayer dollars support them. The House Committee also raised questions about the political connections of Solyndra's backers and their role in winning the loan.
The total cost of that project or those of other companies hasn't been the subject of widespread criticism. "After some companies asked that we remove their total project cost from our Website, last month our legal team conducted a review and determined that total project costs are likely protected by the Trade Secrets Act," wrote a DOE official in an email to VentureWire. He was referring to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which is not a federal law, but a model law that most states use to protect trade secrets. Government employees are precluded from releasing trade secrets.
Total cost of a project can be considered a trade secret, but only if a company can prove the information could give a competitor an economic advantage, according to Russell Beck, attorney with the law firm Beck Reed Riden LLP and a professor at the Boston University School of Law's Intellectual Property program. Just because the cost is confidential doesn't automatically make it a trade secret, he said, especially in cases where the contract is already signed with a customer as opposed to still being part of a confidential bid process.
The fact that the information was open to the public, and to competitors, for several months on the government website is also likely to disqualify it from being subject of trade secret laws, Beck said.
Solar cell manufacturer SunPower Corp. (SPWRA, SPWRB), which was offered a $ 1.19 billion loan in April, subject to certain conditions, deems the total cost of its California project--previously reported by Dow Jones as $1.58 billion-- confidential information, protected under its contract with the buyer of the solar power the project will produce, according to spokeswoman Ingrid Ekstrom. She declined to say whether SunPower requested the DOE to remove the total cost information, and declined to comment on what responsibilities it believes it has as a potential recipient of government funds.
A representative of First Solar Inc. (FSLR), a high-profile recipient of more than $5 billion of conditional loans from the program, declined to comment on the subject. A representative of another solar company, Brightsource Energy Inc., which previously highlighted its total project cost of $2.2 billion in conversations with VentureWire, said he wasn't aware the information was removed, but didn't comment further.
"If you feel that the total project cost is business sensitive, then don't take government money," said Sean Moulton, director of federal information policy at OMB Watch, a nonprofit organization advocating for transparency in government spending. Moulton said the total cost of a project is a fundamental fact that can help the public evaluate whether government funds are being spent wisely.
"I'm quite surprised and disappointed," said Moulton, about the DOE's decision to remove the information. He added that transparency is especially important for public interest projects such as the renewable energy ones that the government supports.
The loan guarantee program, which was created in 2005 during the George W. Bush administration, is backing wind, solar, nuclear, and geothermal power projects and manufacturing plants. Many of the loans come from the Federal Finance Bank. Part of the capital allocated to the program comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was the first spending law, according to advocates, to include a requirement to disclose information about projects online.
Moulton said that in his experience, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act is invoked extremely rarely by the government.
"We are committed to providing the public with as much information as we can, but we also have an obligation to avoid releasing business or procurement sensitive information," wrote the DOE spokesman in an email.
(Dow Jones VentureWire covers news about venture-capital investing and start- up companies.)
-By Yuliya Chernova, Dow Jones VentureWire; 212-416-2020
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I'm quoting the wrong response in this thread, but if I'm not mistaken ( and unless you deleted your own post) you supported the auto bailouts in the thread that 33366 started about Obama's war against coal.
Your rationale was that the bailout/ government takeover saved jobs. Yet, you had no problem with Obama regulating the coal industry into bankruptcy-- even though it would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Now you say that Republicans were wrong for approving the bank bailouts?
Not flaming here, just trying to figure out what your position is on these issues. You seem to be all over the place.
I don't know that I supported fully those bail outs. I remember questioning what would have happened if we didn't bail them out. Would have it been far worse becuase of the ripple effect? and then argument of short term pain by not bailing hem out allowing the market to correct itself seems good too.
With the coal issue, some of that was just me f-ing with 33333. I stated a few times on the coal thread that I didn't think how Obama was going about it was good. May stance on that is to go full force with nuclear power and phase out coal over the course of 20 years.
What has got me up in arms lately is what happened in September-December of 2008. When a conservatively elected President deicides to go against his ideology and ok 2 bailouts totaling almost 2 trillion. And then add that to Michelle Bachmann voting yes on an additional 190 billion to the Obama bail outs. I mean WTF?
I am not saying deems and repubs all suck, I am saying our gevment has been hijacked and political parties are meaningless until we do something about it like removing in some way, money, from politics. Don't know exactly how.
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I don't know that I supported fully those bail outs. I remember questioning what would have happened if we didn't bail them out. Would have it been far worse becuase of the ripple effect? and then argument of short term pain by not bailing hem out allowing the market to correct itself seems good too.
With the coal issue, some of that was just me f-ing with 33333. I stated a few times on the coal thread that I didn't think how Obama was going about it was good. May stance on that is to go full force with nuclear power and phase out coal over the course of 20 years.
What has got me up in arms lately is what happened in September-December of 2008. When a conservatively elected President deicides to go against his ideology and ok 2 bailouts totaling almost 2 trillion. And then add that to Michelle Bachmann voting yes on an additional 190 billion to the Obama bail outs. I mean WTF?
I am not saying deems and repubs all suck, I am saying our gevment has been hijacked and political parties are meaningless until we do something about it like removing in some way, money, from politics. Don't know exactly how.
Ozmo - do you remember that the house Republicans voted against TARP and Nancy Pelosi called them Un American for doing so?
Please bro - lets cut the crap. GWB sucked and TARP was wrong from Day 1. But the Dems and GWB were the ones who rammed that through, not the rank and file GOP. Remember Obama flying back to DC to support it? I always thought McCain lost the election by going along with that crap and his nonsense about the economy.
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Ozmo - do you remember that the house Republicans voted against TARP and Nancy Pelosi called them Un American for doing so?
Please bro - lets cut the crap. GWB sucked and TARP was wrong from Day 1. But the Dems and GWB were the ones who rammed that through, not the rank and file GOP. Remember Obama flying back to DC to support it? I always thought McCain lost the election by going along with that crap and his nonsense about the economy.
What crap?
These guys buckled under The pressure or where told what to do. Either way it shows our elected representatives a not accountable to us. And we have corporations who can directly influence elections, buy off politicians. We got Unions, lobbyists. All this crap is out of control.
And what a you taking about rank and file? Michelle fucking Bachmann?
You a right about McCain but you might be wrong about him not making some of the moves Obama did. Because evidently he a bought and paid for stooge too.
I am pissed off. I a pissed off that our government is hijacked. Things like this show It's not about conservative and liberal anymore. Which is not good.
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It's a tragic state of affairs that once again in a fucking election the vast majority of people will be voting for the lesser of 2 evils.
>:(
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What crap?
These guys buckled under The pressure or where told what to do. Either way it shows our elected representatives a not accountable to us. And we have corporations who can directly influence elections, buy off politicians. We got Unions, lobbyists. All this crap is out of control.
And what a you taking about rank and file? Michelle fucking Bachmann?
You a right about McCain but you might be wrong about him not making some of the moves Obama did. Because evidently he a bought and paid for stooge too.
I am pissed off. I a pissed off that our government is hijacked. Things like this show It's not about conservative and liberal anymore. Which is not good.
She voted against TARP
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It's a tragic state of affairs that once again in a fucking election the vast majority of people will be voting for the lesser of 2 evils.
>:(
So long as we have the electoral college - that is the only thing that really is viable.
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She voted against TARP
So?
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Ok Oz, I see your point.
My only issue was that you said you supported the auto bailouts because jobs would be saved. Arguably, the same was true with the bank bailouts-- and is the case with every other bailout, stimulus package, loan/ debt forgiveness and mortgage nullification legislation that comes down the pike.
All I know is that not a single Republican voted for Obamacare or the stimulus bill. Also, virtually none voted for tarp or supported the auto bailout plan.
In addition, the housing crisis and financial meltdown of 2008 was exclusively of the Democrats making. The book I am reading (Reckless Endangerment) highlights how the current mess we are in started under Bill Clinton and was carried on in full force by people like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
So while hypocrisy is not the exclusive property of the Democratic party, the fact of the matter is that the Democratic party's agenda has basically ended life as we know it in America for the foreseeable future.
You can't fault a lame duck GWB during the last months of his second term for the current catastrophe when Obama has doubled down on stupid for the past three years.
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GOP wants White House papers on loan to failed solar company
The Hill ^ | 9/2/11 | Ben Geman
Posted on September 2, 2011 7:29:24 PM EDT by Nachum
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 shutdown is a bit of an embarrassment for the administration, as the company was the first selected to receive the loan guarantee under a stimulus-backed renewable energy program.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
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Solyndra: Illustrating a Recovery Act Supply Chain
White House Blog ^ | 5.26.2010 | Matt Rogers
Posted on September 3, 2011 9:10:10 AM EDT by Thebaddog
President Obama is in Fremont, California today to visit Solyndra, Inc, an innovative solar panel manufacturer that is building a new facility with funding made possible by the Recovery Act. Here's a look at what they're doing:
The direct benefits of this investment are easy to see. The plant expansion now underway has already enabled the creation of over 3,000 construction-related jobs and Solyndra estimates that the new factory could create as many as 1,000 long-term jobs in operations and supply. Likewise, a formerly empty field will soon be home to a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant that produces clean energy products that can be exported to the world.
What the television cameras won’t capture are the indirect benefits of supporting Solyndra. The impact of Solyndra’s success is being felt throughout the chain of companies that supply Solyndra with goods and materials.
The project is creating jobs around the country. Construction materials for the facility itself are being manufactured by workers in Arkansas, Washington, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and 18 other states. The advanced manufacturing equipment is being made by workers in Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado, and 8 other states. The raw materials to run the facility will come from 15 states including Wisconsin, Ohio, and Kentucky. When the first solar panels are shipped in late 2010, they will be delivered by freight companies and installed by even more new workers.
The map below from Solyndra shows where they have ordered the materials to construct the new facility. Many of the companies in these states have added workers of their own to handle the new orders.
This map from Solyndra shows the states supplying advanced manufacturing equipment to the company.
The Recovery Act’s investment in clean energy is having a ripple effect throughout our economy. A recent survey by Frost and Sullivan of 676 clean energy companies found that while only 3 percent of those companies directly received Recovery Act funds more than 50 percent recognized a positive impact from that legislation.
We still have a long way to go to get America’s economy back on track and to make the United States the world leader in clean energy technologies, but companies like Solyndra and Recovery Act investments like this one are helping drive progress across the country.
Lmfao!!!!!!! What a disaster. 500 million right down the toilet.
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House Investigators Find Evidence Obama Officials Were Personally Involed In Helping Now-Bankrupt Solyndra Energy Receive Massive Federal Loan
(ABC News) — House investigators said they have uncovered evidence that White House officials became personally involved in an Energy Department review of a hot-button $535 million loan guarantee to the now-failed California solar company Solyndra.
The allegation surfaced in a letter House Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) sent to the White House Thursday night, saying he planned to accelerate efforts to understand an investment deal that may have left taxpayers out half a billion dollars.
“We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra’s application and communicated with [Department of Energy] and Office of Management and Budget officials during the course of their review,” the letter says.
Thursday’s letter, which calls on the White House to turn over correspondence between administration officials, Solyndra and its investors, presents the most pointed suggestion that the White House had direct involvement in the financing.
“How did this company, without maybe the best economic plan, all of a sudden get to the head of the line?” Upton told ABC News in an interview this week. “We want to know who made this decision . . . and we’re not going to stop until we get those answers.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/solyndra-investigation-probe-white-house-role-massive-energy/story?id=14434588
Oh my. :-X
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Ok Oz, I see your point.
My only issue was that you said you supported the auto bailouts because jobs would be saved. Arguably, the same was true with the bank bailouts-- and is the case with every other bailout, stimulus package, loan/ debt forgiveness and mortgage nullification legislation that comes down the pike.
All I know is that not a single Republican voted for Obamacare or the stimulus bill. Also, virtually none voted for tarp or supported the auto bailout plan.
In addition, the housing crisis and financial meltdown of 2008 was exclusively of the Democrats making. The book I am reading (Reckless Endangerment) highlights how the current mess we are in started under Bill Clinton and was carried on in full force by people like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
So while hypocrisy is not the exclusive property of the Democratic party, the fact of the matter is that the Democratic party's agenda has basically ended life as we know it in America for the foreseeable future.
You can't fault a lame duck GWB during the last months of his second term for the current catastrophe when Obama has doubled down on stupid for the past three years.
Yeah oBama took it to a whole new level. What i question is why some repubs like Bachmann voted for the extra stimulus.
Do you think what led up to what happened in 2008 is a good reason for some regulation? Just looking to get thoughts. It would seem to me that if there was regulation preventing the sale of these bundled home loans to other banks this might not have been so bad and might not have required so much bailing out. But also if there wasn't the Lending thing under Clinton to Begin with it might not at all happened either.
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House Investigators Find Evidence Obama Officials Were Personally Involed In Helping Now-Bankrupt Solyndra Energy Receive Massive Federal Loan
(ABC News) — House investigators said they have uncovered evidence that White House officials became personally involved in an Energy Department review of a hot-button $535 million loan guarantee to the now-failed California solar company Solyndra.
The allegation surfaced in a letter House Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) sent to the White House Thursday night, saying he planned to accelerate efforts to understand an investment deal that may have left taxpayers out half a billion dollars.
“We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra’s application and communicated with [Department of Energy] and Office of Management and Budget officials during the course of their review,” the letter says.
Thursday’s letter, which calls on the White House to turn over correspondence between administration officials, Solyndra and its investors, presents the most pointed suggestion that the White House had direct involvement in the financing.
“How did this company, without maybe the best economic plan, all of a sudden get to the head of the line?” Upton told ABC News in an interview this week. “We want to know who made this decision . . . and we’re not going to stop until we get those answers.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/solyndra-investigation-probe-white-house-role-massive-energy/story?id=14434588
Oh my. :-X
They just Wanted to wet their beaks.
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Yeah oBama took it to a whole new level. What i question is why some repubs like Bachmann voted for the extra stimulus.
Do you think what led up to what happened in 2008 is a good reason for some regulation? Just looking to get thoughts. It would seem to me that if there was regulation preventing the sale of these bundled home loans to other banks this might not have been so bad and might not have required so much bailing out. But also if there wasn't the Lending thing under Clinton to Begin with it might not at all happened either.
Honestly Oz-- I will stand by this to the day I die; No bailouts, no stimulus, no nothing. The free market should dictate winners and losers.
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George Kaiser Made Multiple Visits to White House Prior to $535 Loan Guarantee to Solyndra
Gateway Pundit ^ | september 3,2011 | Jim Hoft
Posted on September 3, 2011 4:17:03 PM EDT by Hojczyk
In this May 26, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama, with Solyndra Chief Executive Officer Chris Gronet, looks at a solar panel, during a tour of Solyndra, Inc., a solar panel manufacturing facility, in Fremont, Calif. Solyndra received a $535 million loan from the U.S. government has announced layoffs of 1,100 workers and plans to file for bankruptcy. (WaPo)
Top Obama bundler George Kaiser made multiple visits to the White House in the months before the company was granted a $535 million loan from the government. iWatch News reported, via Free Republic:
The i Watch News investigation confirmed that at least 18 other bundlers have ties to businesses poised to profit from the president’s political agenda, through stimulus money, government contracts, or other spending to promote clean energy technology or green development.
Oklahoma billionaire investor George Kaiser is one. A longtime Democratic donor, he is a big financial backer of a company that in March of 2009 won a $535 million loan guarantee [19] from DOE for a solar plant in Silicon Valley. He had multiple visits to the White House in the months before he was awarded the contract. Kaiser has not responded to interview requests from iWatch News.
This doesn’t look very good considering it was widely known that Solyndra was in deep economic trouble and had negative cash flows since its inception.
Kaiser says he did not use political influence or talk to administration officials about a massive government loan to Solyndra.
Tick tick tick.
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EXCLUSIVES
Big Name Investors Behind Obama’s Failed Green Tech Bet First in Line to Recoup Losses
By MICHAEL GRUNWALD Saturday, September 3, 2011 | 235 COMMENTS
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KEN JAMES / BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
The Solyndra plant in Fremont, California.
Republicans are already dancing on the grave of Solyndra, the solar panel manufacturer that received a $535 million federal loan in 2009 and collapsed on Wednesday. Here’s more music they can dance to: Sources tell me the Obama administration restructured the loan this winter, so taxpayers probably won’t even be the first creditors to get paid after Solyndra files for bankruptcy next week. The first $75 million will go to two Solyndra investors who poured in extra cash when the company nearly went bust in January. And one of them is a venture associated with the billionaire George Kaiser, an Obama campaign bundler.
The other investor is a partnership associated with the Walton family, which tends to lean Republican. And public filings suggest that Kaiser-linked funds had sunk at least $320 million into Solyndra before adding the secured financing; they’re taking a bath along with the rest of us. “If this was a sweetheart deal, it was the worst sweetheart deal ever,” one official quipped.
So why did the administration agree to the restructuring? The short answer, in poker terms, is that it felt pot-committed. It had already made a big bet; it didn’t want to fold if there was still a chance of winning. The slightly longer answer is that administration officials thought (as I did) that Solyndra was back on track, and that giving the company a new lease on life would benefit taxpayers even if it ultimately failed. A fuller explanation culled from government documents follows.
Solyndra’s loan, the first approved under a clean-energy program that was launched during the Bush administration and expanded by Obama’s stimulus bill, was supposed to finance a new state-of-the-art factory for the company’s unique cylindrical solar cells. At the time, Solyndra was an exciting startup; according to the public filings, it attracted big money from bigtime financiers, including $35 million from Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund, $57 million from U.S. Venture Partners, and even $2 million from affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
Obama visited the factory in 2010, and hailed it as a beacon of innovation. But by that time, Solyndra was a mess; it soon cancelled an IPO and fired its management team. The biggest problem was obvious; in an industry where prices were plummeting, Solyndra’s product was too expensive. It desperately needed to finish its new factory, which would increase volume and decrease costs. And it needed more sales.
By last November, the company was running out of cash; according to a January 2011 government document, it had “a very high probability” of bankruptcy and liquidation. This was a big problem, not only because the company had drawn down $460 million of its loan, but because its new factory wasn’t even completed, which meant liquidation would be a fire sale. The administration estimated that Solyndra’s assets would fetch less than $100 million, for a total loss of over $360 million.
The other option was restructuring. Kaiser’s Argonaut Ventures and the Walton family’s Madrone Partners would put up an additional $75 million, which would take the first position in case of a liquidation; the government would still be paid first if the company managed to emerge from bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy brought in independent consultants to analyze the company’s technical, financial and market assumptions, and ultimately concluded it did have a potentially viable business. The new factory was on time and on budget. Sales were increasing steadily. And even if Solyndra failed, it would be much more valuable with a completed high-tech plant than with an empty box in Fremont, California.
“We were already in deep,” one official recalls. “We looked at every relevant scenario to maximize the recovery for the taxpayer. We did due diligence as if this were a brand new transaction…The takeaway is, at every juncture we did whatever we could to ensure the best possible outcome for the taxpayer. I think we structured a pretty impressive deal.”
In other words: The operation was successful, but the patient died. Politically, it’s probably an impossible case to make. But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
The government estimated that if the company still went bankrupt but emerged as a going concern, it would still be worth $240 million to $480 million, so the loss to taxpayers would be much lower. And the new management team-led by a former Intel executive-made a persuasive case that it could turn things around with a new sales strategy and a more efficient factory. And it did. Until it didn’t.
“The restructuring gave Solyndra a fighting chance for success,” that same official says. “But then everything fell off a cliff.”
In the summer of 2011, solar panel prices plummeted again. The investors had been poised to inject another $75 million, but this time, they decided not to throw good money after bad. Solyndra shut down and laid off its 1,100 employees. It certainly doesn’t look like it’s ever going to be a going concern again, although bankruptcies can surprise. Thanks to the restructuring, the company’s intellectual property is now part of its collateral.
Solyndra drew down $527 million of its loan before shutting its doors, so the government would have to get back about $160 million from the bankruptcy just to match what it thought it could have gotten if Solyndra had collapsed in January. And the first $75 million goes to Argonaut and Madrone. So unless the company’s assets are worth $235 million, the administration is going to have even more explaining to do.
This is sure to play out as a scandal, but based on what we know so far, it shouldn’t be. Private loans go south all the time. The federal loan guarantee program has budgeted $2.5 billion for failures like this; so far, the program has made about $30 billion worth of loans, and has leveraged another $20 billion in private financing.
The Obama administration has made bets on hundreds of clean-energy companies in dozens of clean-energy sectors; some of those bets in its portfolio are bound to go bad, just as Richard Branson picks an occasional lemon. It’s legitimate to question whether the government should have made this particular bet, or whether it overplayed a weak hand, or whether it should be making bets in the first place. But if we’re going to have a clean energy industry in this country, this kind of thing is going to happen. It doesn’t mean anyone cheated.
Related Topics: george kaiser, obama, solyndra, stimulus, walton family, White House, Exclusives
WWWTTTFFFF!
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As if President Obama didn’t have enough bad news last week, Solyndra, which manufactures solar panels, filed for bankruptcy and laid off almost its entire work force of 1,100. Going down the tubes with it, of course, is a $535 million loan that was guaranteed by the federal government as part of the stimulus program.
And it seems the White House put pressure on the Department of Energy to OK the loan. As the Washington Post reported:
Frank Rusco, a Government Accountability Office director who helped lead a review of the Solyndra loan and the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program, said the GAO remains “greatly concerned” by its 2010 finding that the agency agreed to back five companies with loans without properly assessing their risk of failure. The companies were not identified in the report, but the GAO has since acknowledged that Solyndra was one of them.
And one of the company’s biggest backers, George Kaiser, is also one of Barack Obama’s biggest backers. That, I’m sure, is another “coincidence,” such as the Republican debate being held at the same time that he chose to address Congress.
As ABC News reported, many solar energy company analysts have long doubted Solyndra’s business plan:
While Energy Department officials steadfastly vouched for Solyndra — even after an earlier round of layoffs raised eyebrows — other federal agencies and industry analysts for months questioned the viability of the company. Peter Lynch, a longtime solar industry analyst, told ABC News the company’s fate should have been obvious from the start.
“Here’s the bottom line,” Lynch said. “It costs them $6 to make a unit. They’re selling it for $3. In order to be competitive today, they have to sell it for between $1.5 and $2. That is not a viable business plan.”
Other flags have been raised about how the Energy Department pushed the deal forward. The Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News and ABC disclosed that Energy Department officials announced the support for Solyndra even before final marketing and legal reviews were in. To government auditors, that move raised questions about just how fully the department vetted the deal — and assessed its risk to taxpayers — before signing off.
Based on the evidence assembled so far, no Wall Street investment officer would have recommended the loan or, if he had, would have kept his job for five minutes. Pouring $535 million into an objectively lousy investment is not how Wall Street makes money.
But it all too often is how politicians get re-elected. “Green jobs” are a big plus for the “environmental movement,” which is a very important liberal special interest. That backing these particular jobs was also a favor for a very important Obama political fundraiser was another plus.
This is a textbook case of capital being allocated for political reasons (it will earn us votes) instead of economic reasons (it will make us rich). It is also further proof that politicians can’t make economic decisions even if they wanted to. And they can’t make them for the exact same reason pigs can’t fly: they aren’t designed to.
Bureaucrats and politicians, many of them in life-long careers, are often wholly ignorant of how markets actually work and how to analyze an investment. Liberal politicians and bureaucrats are also instinctively hostile to the very idea that capital should be allocated according to the economic potential of the investment.
Indeed, this is the fatal flaw in the whole philosophy of the left: that government can be an efficient and wealth-creating steward of a national economy. It can’t work until pigs fly. Far better the philosophy of the right (paraphrasing that great political economist, St. Matthew): Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s; render unto the market that which is the market’s.
Obama FAIL!
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September 4, 2011
Solyndra Debacle Spotlights Obama's Folly
By Debra Saunders
Last year, President Barack Obama came to the Bay Area to tout "green jobs" at an event at solar panel manufacturer Solyndra's Fremont plant. Quoth the president: "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra."
On Wednesday, Solyndra announced it was shuttering its remaining Fremont factory, laying off 1,100 workers and filing for bankruptcy. It was a sorry day for the Bay Area.
I remember the day Obama came, May 26, 2010, vividly. Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to greet the president and wave to the hard hats. Venture capitalists preened. Just to show how brainy and farsighted the solar crowd is, Obama reminded the audience that his energy secretary, Steven Chu, is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
Rube that I am, I didn't understand what Obamaland was thinking. Solyndra had not turned a profit since it was founded in 2005. The plant in which Obama stood was bankrolled with a $535 million federal loan guarantee. Two months before, PricewaterhouseCoopers questioned Solyndra's "ability to continue as a going concern."
If the president wants to send a positive message on the U.S. economy, I wondered, then couldn't his people have found a California company that doesn't rely on a federal loan and actually makes money?
Bad advance work, I figured.
A month later, Solyndra canceled a planned $300 million public offering. In November, Solyndra closed its older plant and cut its workforce. Today Solyndra's lights are out.
Now I am wondering: Isn't there some graybeard in the White House who -- knowing that the president won't look good if the tax-funded solar plant folds -- does some digging to make sure the president's choice of venue will not come back to haunt him?
Or could it be that Team Obama is composed of like-minded green true believers who insulate themselves from other points of view -- much like the way, critics contended, George W. Bush was surrounded with yes men?
Consider: The administration continues to cling to its belief that green jobs are the jobs of the future, despite evidence to the contrary. A July study by The Brookings Institution found that green jobs account for 2 percent of American jobs -- and Brookings used a generous definition, which included public-transit and waste-management jobs as green. Even still, Brookings found that green jobs grew at a slower rate (3.4 percent annually) than the national economy (4.2 percent) between 2003 and 2010.
Some Democrats have clued in. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., recently observed, "Of course we want to be part of the new innovation and green jobs. But you know, the green jobs have been about a lot of talk, and not a lot has been happening on that."
But Team Obama won't give up the dream.
Then again, the administration has friends in the green-titan community. Enter Oklahoma oil magnate George Kaiser, who raised at least $50,000 for the 2008 Obama campaign and is a frequent visitor to the White House. Kaiser was a top Solyndra investor.
In September 2009, Solyndra became the first recipient of an administration energy loan program that was part of the president's stimulus package. A 2010 Government Accountability Office audit of the program found that five applicants, including Solyndra, bypassed required steps for funding. A Department of Energy spokesperson told The Washington Post that the GAO got it wrong.
The Solyndra decision baffled some industry experts, who questioned the viability of the company's solar technology. "To think they could compete on any basis, that took a very big leap of faith," solar analyst Ramesh Misra later told the Post.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the Solyndra deal -- with little cooperation from the administration. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., who chairs the investigative subcommittee, noted in a statement, "In an apparent rush to push stimulus dollars out the door, the Obama administration wasted $535 million in taxpayer funds in guaranteeing a loan to a firm that has proven to be unviable in the global market."
Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney defended the loan program with its goal to "invest in cutting-edge technologies."
The president, his Nobel Prize-winning energy secretary and Vice President Joe Biden (via satellite) participated in events that promoted Solyndra's brand. In addition, Solyndra got to spend a half-billion in taxpayer dollars -- and still the solar company couldn't succeed.
Stearns and the committee's chairman, Fred Upton, issued a joint statement that rang true. They said, "We smelled a rat from the onset."
dsaunders@sfchronicle.com
Copyright 2011, Creators Syndicate Inc.
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Obama's Solyndra-Gate Won't Go Away
Townhall.com ^ | September 6, 2011 | John Ransom
In a preview of what’s likely to become a common occurrence in the Obama energy strategy, a California manufacturer of solar systems that was financed by a half-a-billion loan through the Obama administration announced that it would seek bankruptcy protection last week.
Last month publicly-traded Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy protection as the solar market continues to shake out on declining government handouts and fierce competition.
More trouble is expected in the solar industry in the weeks to come. Some of it will come from Congress.
"Last February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation. Now that Solyndra has bit the dust, the DOE loan guarantee program will be Republican’s crosshairs," says the blog on SmartPlanet.com. "This joint statement issued Wednesday from committee chairman Fred Upton and the panel’s oversight subcommittee chairman Cliff Stearns is a good indicator of how intense this investigation is about to become."
We smelled a rat from the onset. As the highly celebrated first stimulus loan guarantee awarded by the DOE, the $535 million loan for Solyndra was suspect from day one.
It is clear that Solyndra was a dubious investment, but the DOE doubled down in March of this year and restructured the loan, possibly further increasing taxpayers’ liability. That is a question we want answered. In this time of record debt such disregard for taxpayer dollars cannot be tolerated.
It doesn't help the administration that the decision to make the loans in the first place has crony capitalism written all over it.
Big time Obama donors and bundlers have a financial interest in Solyndra.
In May, the left-wing leaning Center for Public Integrity blasted Obama for putting the welfare of donors above that of taxpayers by killing important safeguards in the process of making the loans.
"The Energy Department in March 2009 announced its intention to award Solyndra Inc.a $535 million loan guarantee before receiving final copies of outside reviews typically used to vet such deals," wrote CPI. "An independent federal auditor who has reviewed the energy loan program said moving so quickly without completing thorough reviews exposed the program to perceptions of political influence and put taxpayers at greater risk.
From CPI:
There’s a consequence if you don’t follow a rigorous process that’s transparent, said Franklin Rusco, an analyst with the Government Accountability Office . It makes the agency more susceptible to outside pressures, potentially.
"Fueling that perception was the fact that George Kaiser, one of Solyndra’s top investors, raised about $50,000 for Obama’s presidential campaign," writes the Hertiage Foundation.
"The company benefited from another loan guarantee, this one for $10.3 million, as part of the Export-Import Bank’s Renewable Express program, which was created to encourage exports in the renewable energy industry. The Export-Import Bank’s president and chairman, Fred Hochberg, was also a major Obama donor, bundling an estimated $100,000 for his campaign."
The bankruptcy by Solyndra puts at risk $535 million in government loan guarantees granted in 2010 by the administration. Ironically, the company cited “regulatory and policy uncertainties in recent months” as one of the prime reasons the company “could not achieve full-scale operations.”
1,100 employees lost their jobs immediately by the move, although the administration previously claimed that the company “saved or created” 3,000 jobs with the loan.
Regulatory and policy uncertainties from this administration? Nah.
In 2010, Solyndra spent $550,000 on lobbying the federal government. In 2011, so far they have spent only $220,000 on lobbying. The administration is likely hopeful that this will teach others not to cut their lobbying budget.
Solyndra employees contributed over $10,000 to various Democrat candidates and committees in 2010 including Harry Reid, Gabrielle Gifford, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Diane Feinstein and Barbra Boxer.
The bankruptcy announcement by the struggling solar company comes amidst a glut of solar panels on the market, combined with tough financing conditions for an industry that can’t compete with old-fashioned fossil-fuel created electricity.
“Solyndra could not achieve full-scale operations rapidly enough to compete in the near term with the resources of larger foreign manufacturers," "This competitive challenge was exacerbated by a global oversupply of solar panels ," and a severe compression of prices that in part resulted from uncertainty in governmental incentive programs in Europe and the decline in credit markets that finance solar systems.”
In May, Italy announced that they would be cutting back subsidies to solar companies by about 35 percent with another 23 percent to be chopped off in 2012. With other European subsidies in doubt, private financing is becoming tougher for an industry that can’t scale up to commercial size without significant spending by governments.
In fact, Solyndra was forced in March to scrap plans for a $300 million initial public offering as the financial markets deteriorated and competition from China made the economics a tougher sale for the company.
Instead, the company was forced to take money from inside investors, according to the website Seeking Alpha.
“[Solyndra] had to take $175 million more from their existing investors,” wrote the site in June, “likely at onerous ‘cramdown terms.’ Earlier investors and stock-holding employees end up with shrinking equity shares of the company.”
All told, Seeking Alpha reports that the company received a billion dollars in venture capital plus the $535 million federal loan guarantee. While not all of the money included in the guarantee has been doled out apparently, it’s unclear how much money the government is on the hook for.
Even in June, the company’s viability was being questioned by Seeking Alpha’s green correspondent Green Tech Media, “a business to business site [that covers] daily news and market analysis” on green technology: “What are the repayment terms for the DOE loan?” asked Green Tech. “How does the U.S. expect to get this money back from a company that is losing cash with every shipment?”
Those are good questions that probably should have been asked by the Department of Energy before guaranteeing a half-a-billion in project financing.
Are the Obama folks the only ones now who believe their own rhetoric? I mean if you’ve lost Green Tech Media, haven’t you lost the war?
Last week we criticized the Department of Energy for guaranteeing a $133 million loan to Abegnoa, a Spanish biomass company. The loan will help build a biomass plant with technology that has yet to prove commercially viable despite decades of research and test plant construction.
“If the biomass plant made any sense at all economically the company would be able to get a loan on the strength of its balance sheet,” I wrote in Palin Thumps Harvard, “rather than having to rely on guarantees from the Department of Energy. Because in the end, this plant won’t make money, won’t make the rent and certainly won’t make enough ‘green’ fuel to power Kyle Orton’s Prius for a week.”
So far the Department of Energy has guaranteed $38.7 billion in green loans under Obama, loans that are little more than empty calories salted generously by government cash.
They claim that the program “created or saved” 68, 578 jobs.
Minus 1,100.
Expect the fallout to continue with proposal expected by Obama that will propose fruther stimulus spending on supposed job-creation.
Timeline of Energy and Commerce Committee Investigation
February 17, 2011 - Committee Leaders submit a letter to Energy Secretary Chu seeking documents and information about the $535 million loan guarantee that the DOE Loan Guarantee Program awarded Solyndra, Inc. DOE complies with the request.
March 14, 2011 - Committee Leaders submit a letter to OMB requesting key documents and information concerning the review of the Solyndra loan guarantee. A two week deadline is set.
March 17, 2011 – Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations holds a hearing on DOE Recovery Act Spending.
March 28, 2011 – OMB fails to meet the Committee deadline.
June 7, 2011 – After weeks of back and forth, an in camera review takes place with Committee staff and OMB staff. OMB selected eight emails between OMB and DOE to make available to Committee staff, and refused to produce the rest of the emails or the agreed-upon internal OMB emails and documents.
June 23, 2011 - Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns responded in a letterto OMB after it refused to share requested documents by the Committee regarding the Solyndra loan guarantee investigation.
June 24, 2011 - The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing regarding OMB’s Role in the DOE Loan Guarantee Process. Sole witness Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget was a no show.
July 11, 2011 - Committee staff conduct a second in camera review. Committee staff asked OMB about the production of the other categories of documents sought by this Committee, specifically, OMB’s internal communications and documents relating to Solyndra, and its communications with the White House. As the OMB had done for months, OMB staff refused to provide and answer about whether they would produce these materials, and instead maintained that the OMB-DOE communications sufficiently show whether or not OMB had has done its job with regard to Solyndra.
July 12, 2011 - Energy and Commerce Committee leaders announced the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations were to hold a business meeting on Thursday, July 14, 2011 to consider a motion authorizing the issuance of a subpoena for certain records of the Office and Management and Budget relating to the Department of Energy’s issuance of a loan guarantee to Solyndra, Inc. on September 2, 2009.
July 13, 2011 - Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns wrote a letter to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide a final opportunity to avoid the issuance of a subpoena. OMB refused.
July 14, 2011 - The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a business meeting to consider the issuance of the subpoena. The Subcommittee voted to issue the subpoena 14 to 8.
July 15, 2011 – The subpoena is issued to OMB, setting a July 22, 2011, deadline.
July 22, 2011 – OMB fails to meet the subpoena’s dealing. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns informs OMB that they have failed to comply with the subpoena issued on July 15, 2011 regarding the Solyndra loan guarantee. Chairman Stearns requested that OMB produce the documents no later than 9:00 a.m. Monday, July 25, 2011.
July 25, 2011 – OMB fails to produce the documents by 9:00am deadline.
August 2011 – OMB agrees to produce all documents necessary to the Committee's investigation, with appropriate safeguards relating to proprietary information. Production continues.
________________________ _________
Words fail me for this disgusting Flash Mob Admn.
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SolarGate
IBD Editorials ^ | September 6, 2011 | Staff
Posted on September 6, 2011 8:11:53 PM EDT by Kaslin
Corruption: 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.
During the Clinton administration, when the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House became a favorite place for campaign contributors to rest their weary wallets, the infamous Johnny Chung made the observation that the White House was like a subway turnstile. You put your token in and you got inside.
Getting inside the White House was easy for billionaire investor George Kaiser, who made multiple visits to the White House and appeared at White House events next to administration officials. One of the prime investors in the green energy company Solyndra, Kaiser put quite a few tokens in the White House turnstile.
As the Daily Caller reports, Kaiser himself donated $53,000 to Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign, divided between Obama for America and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. A world-class bundler, Kaiser also raised $50,000 to $100,000 from others for the senator's campaign.
Despite a warning from Solyndra's own accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers that the company's business model was suspect and raised "substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern," President Obama visited the company and gave it a glowing endorsement as a government-picked winner alongside electric cars and high-speed rail.
Despite its spotty business record, Solyndra was the first recipient of green stimulus cash in the form of a $535 million guaranteed loan. The loan not only escaped serious scrutiny, according to the Government Accountability Office, but also was — despite denials by White House officials — fast-tracked by an administration that monitored every step in the process.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
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Solyndra files bankruptcy, employees sue
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/6/11 | David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Posted on September 6, 2011 7:14:52 PM EDT by SmithL
Solyndra, the solar-cell company whose collapse last week triggered a national debate over green jobs, filed its bankruptcy papers Monday, listing $859 million in assets and $784 million in secured loans.
The company's biggest lender was the federal government, which loaned Solyndra $528 million in 2009 to build a new factory near its Fremont headquarters. As part of an effort to boost renewable power companies, the government offered Solyndra as much as $535 million for the project, but the factory cost slightly less to build than expected.
The government will not, however, be the first creditor in line during Solyndra's bankruptcy proceedings. A $69 million loan this spring from the company's private investors will be repaid before taxpayers get their money back, according to a creditors' agreement cited in the bankruptcy filing.
Solyndra's former employees, most of whom were laid off last week, also hope to receive money from the company.
Research and development engineer Peter Kohlstadt filed a class-action lawsuit against the company Friday, arguing that Solyndra violated California's WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) by laying off employees without 60-days' notice. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, seeks 60-days' pay, 401(k) contributions and health benefits for the more than 1,100 employees affected, who were let go without severance.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
WTF! Obama is really perhaps the most corrupt disgusting vile wretched dirty pofs ever!
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Why did it take so long to uncover the green jobs racket?
Washington Post ^ | September 6, 2011 | By Jennifer Rubin
________________________ ________________________ __________
It seems like just a week or so ago when “green jobs” were still the rage. But in the wake of the Solyndra debacle, there is now a stampede to cough up the truth: It’s pretty much been a racket from the get-go. David Brooks is the latest to discover the scam:
"A study by McKinsey suggests that clean energy may produce jobs for highly skilled engineers, but it will not produce many jobs for U.S. manufacturing workers."
It’s not like green jobs have been working up until now. Brooks, for example, cites a 2009 book written by a Harvard business professor on the poor results from government-supported entrepreneurship. (It’s an oxymoron, actually.) It seems government is also very bad at figuring out when it is wasting money.
In this regard, the Obama administration has been edifying. It turns out that government, aside from growing the federal bureaucracy, is really bad at creating jobs out of thin air. There’s not so many shovel-ready jobs, after all. Rather than do the things that Brooks refers to as “table-setting” (“funding academic research, establishing clear laws, improving immigration policies, building infrastructure and keeping capital gains tax rates low”), government has been either inert or counterproductive.
Green jobs, like any federal program, stick around as a plaything of government well past they’ve been shown to be a failure. That is the nature of government — a constituency forms, agencies are set up, and lobby groups arise.
The lesson should not be simply that government can’t create green jobs; rather, it is that government spending is a hugely inefficient way to promote job growth.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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Obama blows another $100bn on green fantasies(Energy Sec. Chu's office declares Solyndra a success)
washtimes ^ | 9/7/11 | David A. Keene
Posted on September 7, 2011 10:45:25 AM EDT by bestintxas
Last week, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy announced it is extending an $852 million loan guarantee to something called the Genesis Solar Project in California.
Genesis, according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, will be built on federal land and ultimately employ perhaps 800 people during its construction and 47 people once it is up and running. This would seem to be a lot of money to generate very few jobs at a time when the nation is on the verge of bankruptcy, but the project really isn’t about jobs.
It’s the latest in the administration’s attempt to turn us away from dependence on fossil fuels regardless of cost and reality. This project, according to Mr. Chu, “will enable the deployment of clean, renewable sources at scale, which will help bring down the cost of solar power in the years to come.”
Maybe, but one has to remember that this man is part of an administration with neither a learning curve nor much regard for the intelligence of the people who elected the president.
You see, Mr. Chu and his boss have been there and done that already in California, using tax money to guarantee a massive investment in a company that was going to help usher in a brave, new and a very green world.
That company, Solyndra, declared bankruptcy not 48 hours after Mr. Chu announced his faith in Genesis. Solyndra’s founders managed to procure and eat up roughly half a billion dollars in federally guaranteed loans without making a penny in profit before declaring bankruptcy.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Wtf!
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Solyndra - The Obama connection
Submitted by Bruce Krasting on 09/07/2011 13:53 -0400
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/solyndra-obama-connection?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29
Creditors Oklahoma
I wrote about the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra last week; "Government Investment Disaster in the Works" I highlighted all of the negatives that the company was facing.
It was pretty clear to me that that company was facing trouble. But I had no idea that they would file Chapter 11 the very next day. (Sometimes you just get lucky)
I also made note of some scuttlebutt that George Kaiser (Oklahoma oil billionaire) was involved with Solyndra. I have been looking for a confirmation of this. Kaiser is an important link in this story. He is also a very big fund-raiser for Obama. He is often referred to as a “Bundler”. In this case that means he encouraged/pushed others to put up money for the big O’s campaign.
The Tulsa World filed a story Re the Kaiser connection earlier today. (What better place to get the news than a home town paper). Quotes from the TW article:
The bankruptcy filing indicates that Argonaut Ventures, an investment arm of the Tulsa-based foundation, holds almost 39 percent of Solyndra's parent, 360 Solar Degree Holdings Inc.
Okay, so who is behind Argonaut Ventures?
In an emailed statement to the Tulsa World, a representative of the George Kaiser Family Foundation said the organization made the investment through Argonaut.
So the family foundation was the source of the money that got Solyndra going. But George Kaiser tried to distance himself from this very ugly story. A quote from a Kaiser “spokesperson”:
"George Kaiser is not an investor in Solyndra and did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".
Interesting that Kaiser is doing his level best to distance himself from the stink. But it does not work for me:
George Kaiser is chairman of BOK Financial Corp. and owner of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Argonaut is headed by Steve Mitchell, who also served on Solyndra's board of directors.
So Kaiser wants us to believe that the Family Foundation he runs invested some $300mm of the families “excess cash” and he did not really know about it. The guy who is running the family’s investments (Steve Mitchell) is also sitting on the board at Solyndra. And we are supposed to believe that George Kaiser was just a passive investor? Not a chance.
We have Mr. Kaiser on the record on this. Again, his words:
“George Kaiser did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".
He never spoke to Obama about this? Not even once? Not even when Obama went (twice) to the company’s manufacturing offices in Pa and CA? I don’t believe that denial.
There is one very slippery fact that I am wondering about. It has to do with subordination. This a legal issue on who gets paid first in a bankruptcy. In all cases the equity is last on the list. But that is not the situation with Solyndra/Kaiser. From Bloomberg:
In February, Solyndra and its lenders reorganized the company’s debts, putting the U.S. loan behind $69.3 million owed to other lenders, including an affiliate of Solyndra’s biggest shareholder, Argonaut Ventures.
This kind of stuff is not supposed to happen. The equity interest of the Kaiser family got a preference as to the right of repayment from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the line. He got in front of the US Government’s $528mm IOU from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the interests of the American taxpayer. There had to be some very serious arm-twisting going on in the background to achieve this feat.
.
I’ve looked at the BK filings. The company is going to sell its assets in an effort to pay of all creditors. The question is who gets paid first and what are the liquidation proceeds.
Solyndra had lousy technology. There are tons of flat panel manufactures left standing. Whatever Solyndra has for sale is not going to be worth much. I’m guessing around 20 cents on the dollar from book. The company has listed $859mm of assets. By my calculation the cash value will be under $200mm.
There are employee claims that come first. Next in line come trade creditors. Then comes the senior unsecured debt owed to Argonaut. The lawyers (There are a ton of big shots already involved) will get their pound of flesh. That leaves next to nothing for Uncle Sam. The taxpayers are going to take it in the ear for $400-500 million.
This story will hound Obama. His campaign got big bucks from a guy who ended up costing the Feds a very big penny. This is a story that could drag Obama down. He either has to step up and explain how this could have happened or he can say nothing. He has to provide some clarity on the George Kaiser connection. If he chooses to keep mum on this mess he will have to face Congressional hearings for the next 18 months. There will be a story in the paper every week or so. The Republicans will see to it. This is a story that could turn an election.
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can we impeach this piece of ghetto trash yet?
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How did Solyndra get a sweetheart interest rate?
September 7, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/07/how-did-solyndra-get-a-sweetheart-interest-rate
ABC News discovered that the solar-tech firm Solyndra got unusually low interest rates on its federally-guaranteed loans before it collapsed last month, sending 1000 workers to the unemployment line in California. Other green-tech firms receiving loans paid as much as three and four times the interest rate Solyndra secured for its $535 million from Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill from the Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank. ABC notes that other green-tech firms didn’t have the connections that Solyndra had to Obama:
The $535 million loan to Solyndra Inc., issued by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank, included a quarterly interest rate of 1.025 percent, the government bank reported in July. Of 18 Energy Department loans cited in the bank’s report, Solyndra’s rate was lowest. Eight other Energy Department projects, each also backed by the Federal Financing Bank, came with rates three or four times higher, the report shows.
That treatment is in keeping with the history of the loan to the California solar panel maker, an arrangement inked in September 2009 with great fanfare — and touted, not long after, during a factory visit from the president. Monthly government bank reports filed since then reveal Solyndra’s rate as the lowest for any energy-related project in nearly every report; in every case its rate was well below that of most energy projects, which ranged from cutting-edge electric car makers to wind and solar ventures. …
Solyndra’s most prolific financial backer is George Kaiser, an Oklahoma oil billionaire who was a bundler of campaign donations for Obama’s 2008 race. Kaiser’s Argonaut Ventures and its affiliates have been the single largest shareholder of Solyndra, according to SEC filings and other records. The company holds 39 percent of Solyndra’s parent company, bankruptcy records filed Tuesday show.
And guess who gets paid out of the bankruptcy first?
Under terms of the bankruptcy filing, investors including Argonaut — which led a $75 million round of financing for Solyndra earlier this year — will stand in line before the federal government and other creditors.
When Solyndra announced that round of fundraising this February, it noted that the DOE had refinanced terms of the $535 million loan to extend the payment period. Under an “inter-creditor agreement” cited in the bankruptcy filing, the investors in the $75 million financing are considered first lien holders. That leaves Obama officials to confront the prospect of waiting behind private companies.
Don’t think that this happened by accident. Before Obama took office, Solyndra applied for the federally-subsidized green-tech loan, and only scored a B+ from appraisers, which ABC calls a “red flag.” Dun & Bradstreet only gave a “fair” rating to Solyndra credit, another indication that a big loan might be risky. Instead of slowing the process down to protect taxpayers, the Obama administration fast-tracked Solyndra’s application and made the company a poster child for its promise of a green-jobs “explosion.”
The White House has to explain why it overruled the FFB’s auditors and ignored the warnings from appraisers while fast-tracking over half a billion dollars to a teetering company at loan rates far below what FFB charged other companies. Obama also needs an explanation of why his bundler George Kaiser will get his capital back before taxpayers see the first dime of that $535 million that got destroyed in Solyndra’s collapse. If they don’t have a legitimate explanation for these, then Congress may need to start issuing subpoenas to get answers, because right now it looks very much like Obama used taxpayer money to try to bail out a key campaign donor and left us all holding the bag.
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Bump for Team Tampon
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Breaking: FBI executing search warrants at Solyndra right now.
AP ^ | AP
FREMONT, Calif. (AP) — FBI spokesman says federal agents executing search warrants at California solar firm Solyndra
(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...
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FBI at Solyndra Headquarters
Part of a joint investigation with the Dept. of EnergyBy RJ Middleton | Thursday, Sep 8, 2011 | Updated 8:49 AM PDTView Comments (4)
| Email| Print Christie Smith / NBC Bay Area
FBI officials are at Solyndra's headquarters, fulfilling search warrants.
FBI agents armed with search warrants descended this morning on bankrupt solar company Solynrda this morning.
The investigation comes after a request by the Department of Energy's inspector general, FBI spokesman Peter Lee told NBC Bay Area News.
Agents arrived at 7a.m. and are examining the factory. Solynrda has a skeleton crew of 100 workers on the scene, closing the factory down. A CNBC photographer on the scene says the FBI has promised a press conference. An agency spokesperson at its San Francisco headquarters says he's unaware of any such plans.
Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last week, shocking both workers and the Obama administration, which had given the startup hundreds of millions of dollars in low interest loans. Congress has demanded a hearing into the matter.
There are no reports of any arrests at this time.
Solyndra officials made numerous visits -- 20 -- to the White House, according to logs and reporting by The Daily Caller. Solyndra officials in the logs included chairman and founder Christian Gronet and board members Thomas Baruch and David Prend, according to the Caller.
Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last week, shocking both workers and the Obama administration, which had given the startup hundreds of millions of dollars in low-interest loans. Congress has demanded a hearing looking into that loan.
NBC Bay Area has a team en route to the scene, as well as a helicopter.
Please check here for updates as this story unfolds.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/FBI-at-Solyndra-Headquarters-129455348.html
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Solyndra officials made numerous trips to the White House, logs show
Published: 1:30 AM 09/08/2011
By Amanda Carey
FREMONT, CA - MAY 26: Ben Bierman (R) and Chris Gronet (L) lead U.S. President Barack Obama on a tour of the Solyndra solar panel company May 26, 2010 in Fremont, California. (Photo by Paul Chinn-Pool/Getty Images)
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. In the week before the administration awarded Solyndra with the first-ever alternative energy loan guarantee on March 20, four separate visits were logged.
George Kaiser, who has in the past been labeled a major Solyndra investor as well as a Obama donor, made three visits to the White House on March 12, 2009, and one on March 13. Kaiser has denied any direct involvement in the Solyndra deal and through a statement from his foundation said he “did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan.”
But the countless meetings at the White House seem hardly coincidental. Kaiser, in fact, is responsible for 16 of the 20 meetings that showed up on the White House logs.
In the meetings on March 12, Kaiser met with former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Austan Goolsbee at 11 a.m., Senior Advisor Pete Rouse at 3 p.m., and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council Heather Higginbottom at 6:30 p.m. On the 13th, Kaiser met with Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Jason Furman at 9 a.m.
Other Solyndra officials that made the trek over to the White House include Chairman and Founder Christian Gronet on September 22, 2009, at 9:30 a.m.; and Board Members Thomas Baruch and David Prend.
Baruch went to the White House May 7, 2010, and September 20, 2010, at 8:40 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. Prend visited on September 21, 2010, at 9:15 p.m. (RELATED: Bankrupt solar company with Fed backing has cozy ties to Obama administration)
The visitor logs also show that a number of members of the administration a loan guarantee for Solyndra pressing enough to take meetings. Former Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel and Adviser Valerie Jarrett even took meetings with Kaiser.
As TheDC previously reported, Solyndra officials, including Kaiser himself, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Barack Obama.
Kaiser personally donated $53,500 to Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. Ben Bierman, executive vice president of operations donated $5,500 to Obama, and Karen Alter, senior vice president of marketing gave $23,000, just to name a few.
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www.reliant.com/solarIn 2009, Solyndra secured a $535 million loan guarantee
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/08/solyndra-officials-made-numerous-trips-to-the-white-house-logs-show/#ixzz1XNUjJF1D
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COME ON TEAM TAMPON - DEFEND THIS!
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Solyndra - The Obama connection
ZeroHedge ^
September 08, 2011 12:29:35
Solyndra - The Obama connection
I wrote about the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra last week; "Government Investment Disaster in the Works" I highlighted all of the negatives that the company was facing.
It was pretty clear to me that that company was facing trouble. But I had no idea that they would file Chapter 11 the very next day. (Sometimes you just get lucky)
I also made note of some scuttlebutt that George Kaiser (Oklahoma oil billionaire) was involved with Solyndra. I have been looking for a confirmation of this. Kaiser is an important link in this story. He is also a very big fund-raiser for Obama. He is often referred to as a “Bundler”. In this case that means he encouraged/pushed others to put up money for the big O’s campaign.
The Tulsa World filed a story Re the Kaiser connection earlier today. (What better place to get the news than a home town paper). Quotes from the TW article:
The bankruptcy filing indicates that Argonaut Ventures, an investment arm of the Tulsa-based foundation, holds almost 39 percent of Solyndra's parent, 360 Solar Degree Holdings Inc.
Okay, so who is behind Argonaut Ventures?
In an emailed statement to the Tulsa World, a representative of the George Kaiser Family Foundation said the organization made the investment through Argonaut.
So the family foundation was the source of the money that got Solyndra going. But George Kaiser tried to distance himself from this very ugly story. A quote from a Kaiser “spokesperson”:
"George Kaiser is not an investor in Solyndra and did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".
Interesting that Kaiser is doing his level best to distance himself from the stink. But it does not work for me:
George Kaiser is chairman of BOK Financial Corp. and owner of Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Argonaut is headed by Steve Mitchell, who also served on Solyndra's board of directors.
So Kaiser wants us to believe that the Family Foundation he runs invested some $300mm of the families “excess cash” and he did not really know about it. The guy who is running the family’s investments (Steve Mitchell) is also sitting on the board at Solyndra. And we are supposed to believe that George Kaiser was just a passive investor? Not a chance.
We have Mr. Kaiser on the record on this. Again, his words:
“George Kaiser did not participate in any discussions with the U.S. government regarding the loan".
He never spoke to Obama about this? Not even once? Not even when Obama went (twice) to the company’s manufacturing offices in Pa and CA? I don’t believe that denial.
There is one very slippery fact that I am wondering about. It has to do with subordination. This a legal issue on who gets paid first in a bankruptcy. In all cases the equity is last on the list. But that is not the situation with Solyndra/Kaiser. From Bloomberg:
In February, Solyndra and its lenders reorganized the company’s debts, putting the U.S. loan behind $69.3 million owed to other lenders, including an affiliate of Solyndra’s biggest shareholder, Argonaut Ventures.
This kind of stuff is not supposed to happen. The equity interest of the Kaiser family got a preference as to the right of repayment from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the line. He got in front of the US Government’s $528mm IOU from Solyndra. Kaiser got in front of the interests of the American taxpayer. There had to be some very serious arm-twisting going on in the background to achieve this feat. .
I’ve looked at the BK filings. The company is going to sell its assets in an effort to pay of all creditors. The question is who gets paid first and what are the liquidation proceeds.
Solyndra had lousy technology. There are tons of flat panel manufactures left standing. Whatever Solyndra has for sale is not going to be worth much. I’m guessing around 20 cents on the dollar from book. The company has listed $859mm of assets. By my calculation the cash value will be under $200mm.
There are employee claims that come first. Next in line come trade creditors. Then comes the senior unsecured debt owed to Argonaut. The lawyers (There are a ton of big shots already involved) will get their pound of flesh. That leaves next to nothing for Uncle Sam. The taxpayers are going to take it in the ear for $400-500 million.
This story will hound Obama. His campaign got big bucks from a guy who ended up costing the Feds a very big penny. This is a story that could drag Obama down. He either has to step up and explain how this could have happened or he can say nothing. He has to provide some clarity on the George Kaiser connection. If he chooses to keep mum on this mess he will have to face Congressional hearings for the next 18 months. There will be a story in the paper every week or so. The Republicans will see to it. This is a story that could turn an election.
www.zerohedge.com
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Another Obama victory!
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True - when collapsing america is your goal - this is certainly a victory.
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Solyndra was given a 535 million loan garrantee. Not sure how much of the money they spent but it doesn't surprise me that the facility was raided by the FEDS. Anytime you abruptly cease operations and lay off every worker immediately with no compensation or warning at all, then there's going to be hell to pay. There was no indication whatsoever that the company was having any problems.
One thing is for sure, Obama is going to have someone's nuts for this. Very embarrassing for him to have this happen after praising the company last year.
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FBI raids solar panel company hailed by Obama
The Washington Times ^ | Sept. 8, 2011 | Jim McElhatton and Jerry Seper
FBI agents on Thursday executed search warrants at the headquarters of Solyndra LLC, which was awarded more than $500,000 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.
But the company filed a bankruptcy petition Tuesday in Delaware, asking a court to bar phone, electricity and water and sewer service providers from “altering, refusing or discontinuing service,” and now is the focus of an investigation by the FBI and the Energy Department's Office of Inspector General.
FBI spokesman Peter Lee said he could not provide details about the investigation.
A little more than a year ago, President Obama hailed Solyndra during a tour of the company, saying it expected to hire 1,000 workers and make enough panels over the lifetime of its planned expanded facility that it would be like replacing eight coal-fired power plants.
“It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future,” Mr. Obama said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
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FBI raids solar panel company hailed by Obama
Firm got $500 million in stimulus funds
By Jim McElhatton and Jerry Seper
FBI agents on Thursday executed search warrants at the 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.
But the company filed a bankruptcy petition Tuesday in Delaware, asking a court to bar phone, electricity and water and sewer service providers from "altering, refusing or discontinuing service," and now is the focus of an investigation by the FBI and the Energy Department's Office of Inspector General.
FBI spokesman Peter Lee said he could not provide details about the investigation.
A little more than a year ago, President Obama hailed Solyndra during a tour of the company, saying it expected to hire 1,000 workers and make enough panels over the lifetime of its planned expanded facility that it would be like replacing eight coal-fired power plants.
"It's here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future," Mr. Obama said.
The company's bankruptcy petition came two years after Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and Vice President Joseph R. Biden announced approval of $535 million in federal loans to Solyndra.
"This announcement today is part of the unprecedented investment this administration is making in renewable energy and exactly what the Recovery Act is all about," Mr. Biden said.
Instead, Solyndra, which was launched in 2005, last week shed more than 900 full-time employees, leaving just a "core group" of 113 employees, according to bankruptcy records. The price for solar panels has dropped by more than 40 percent, in part because of heavy competition from Chinese companies.
Republicans have been looking into the Solyndra loan for several months and has subpoenaed documents concerning it from the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Rep. Cliff Stearns, Florida Republican and chairman of the subcommittee for oversight and investigations on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said last week the company's collapse should raise concerns about the entire stimulus program.
"The administration celebrated Solyndra as the first recipient of its loan guarantee program and intended to showcase its success as representative of its stimulus program," Mr. Stearns said. "This should be of great concern to all Americans considering the $1 trillion committed by the White House to its stimulus efforts."
Mr. Stearns and Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter last week to the White House seeking information about the White House's role in the loans to Solyndra.
In the letter, Mr. Stearns and Mr. Upton said they've learned from an investigation they had previously been conducting that Department of Energy officials, as well as officials from the Office of Management and Budget, were aware of White House interest in the Solyndra loan deal. In addition, they said they were aware that a major investor in Solyndra, George Kaiser, was a bundler for Mr. Obama's campaign.
"Now with the collapse of Solyndra, we see 1,100 employees out of work and taxpayers out of $535 million, most likely," Mr. Stearns said in a statement.
W.G. Stover Jr., chief financial officer for Solyndra, said in a court filing that the company was battered by "the combination of general business conditions and an oversupply of solar panels" that reduced prices worldwide.
He blamed the oversupply on expanding capacity by foreign solar panel manufacturers that "utilized low cost capital provided by their governments to expand operations."
"In response, Solyndra was forced to reduce its average selling prices to remain competitive," Mr. Stover explained in the 56-page court filing. In addition, he said the reduction or elimination of government subsidies and incentives to buy solar energy, particularly in Europe, also hurt demand for the company's panels.
Dan Leistikow, director of public affairs for the Energy Department, said in a statement that "changing economics have affected a number of solar manufacturers in recent months, including unfortunately, Solyndra. …"
"This loan guarantee was pursued by both the Bush and Obama administrations," Mr Leistikow said. "Private sector investors, who put more than $1 billion of their own money on the line, also saw great potential in the company."
Reacting to news of the company's layoffs last week, Jay Carney, White House press secretary, said there were more than 40 companies in the same loan program that funded Solyndra and "you cannot measure the success based on one company or the other."
© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/8/fbi-raids-solar-panel-company-hailed-by-obama/print
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Bankrupt Obama Stimulus Darling Raided By Feds
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/08/2011 13:00 -0400
Department Of Energy FBI Federal Financing Bank Government Stimulus Obama Administration Treasury Department
After breaking the story of Solyndra's shady taxpayer funded practices (which were not enough to stave off bankruptcy, and yet another confirmation that government stimulus in the form of subsidies is virtually always an epic failure), Bruce Krasting subsequently delved into the one entity that somehow had managed to get priority interest to subordinated government loans to the tune of $528 million in government funding: Argonaut Ventures, and specifically one George Kaiser who just happens to be a material fund-raiser for the president. And while it is not known yet whether the embedded improprieties in this peculiar relationship will end Obama's chances for reelection, things are starting to stink. Because as Bloomberg reports, as of a few hours ago, the company's headquarters was raided by the Feds. While at this point they are certainly looking for signs of criminal malfeasance by management, it won't be long before they put two and two together and decided to analyze the logic behind the funding, and why it is that an Obama-favored person will get his money out first while US taxpayers will likely suffer a total wash.
From Bloomberg:
Solyndra LLC, the bankrupt solar- panel maker that was backed by the Obama administration, is being raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation today, an agency spokeswoman said.
“We’re executing a search warrant jointly” with the Department of Energy inspector general “regarding an investigation,” FBI spokeswoman Julie Sohn said of the raid at the company’s Fremont, California, headquarters offices and plant. Sohn said she couldn’t provide details about the investigation.
The company, whose $535 million federal loan guarantee was criticized by Republicans, filed bankruptcy on Sept. 6, six days after shutting down its factory and firing 1,100 people.
Former Solyndra employees sued the company, claiming it failed to give the warning required under federal law before shutting down and firing them.
Solyndra said it failed because it couldn’t compete with foreign manufacturers funded by their foreign governments. The U.S. Federal Financing Bank, owned by the U.S. Treasury Department, is the company’s biggest lender, according to court papers.
Something tells us that the word Solyndra will see precisely zero mentions in a word cloud of Obama's speech tonight.
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bankrupt-obama-stimulus-darling-raided-feds
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I wonder if Obama will mention this tonight.
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Skipping safeguards, officials rushed benefit to a politically-connected energy company
The Obama administration bypassed steps meant to protect taxpayers as it hurried to approve an energy loan guarantee to a politically-connected California solar power startup , iWatch News [4] and ABC News have learned.
The Energy Department in March 2009 announced [5] its intention to award Solyndra Inc. [6]a $535 million loan guarantee before receiving final copies of outside reviews typically used to vet such deals. An independent federal auditor who has reviewed the energy loan program said moving so quickly without completing thorough reviews exposed the program to perceptions of political influence and put taxpayers at greater risk.
“There’s a consequence if you don’t follow a rigorous process that’s transparent,” said Franklin Rusco, an analyst with the Government Accountability Office [7]. “It makes the agency more susceptible to outside pressures, potentially.”
The loan guarantee, the administration's first for a clean energy project, benefited a company whose prime financial backers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a “bundler” of campaign donations. Kaiser raised at least $50,000 for the president’s 2008 election effort.
Kaiser did not respond to interview requests made through Solyndra, and his Kaiser-Francis Oil Company in Tulsa said he declined comment. Solyndra spokesman David Miller said political ties had no bearing.
“We do not believe there was any connection at all,” said Miller. “We have created a substantial number of jobs with Solyndra and we’re very proud of that. I think people are missing a lot of the story getting into the politics.”
He said the company first applied for funding under the Bush administration, though it won it under Obama at a time the commercial financing market was dry.
Several political allies of the president have ties to companies receiving Energy Department loans, grants or loan guarantees. For instance, the venture firm of another top Obama bundler, Steve Westly, has financially supported companies that won more than half a billion dollars in energy grants and loans during President Obama’s time in office, iWatchNews and ABC reported in March [8]. Relatively few applicants succeed in winning such benefits. The Energy Department said every one of those awards was won on merit.
The Solyndra loan guarantee, advertised by the administration as part of its signature effort to create jobs while weaning the U.S. from traditional energy sources, already has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have requested documents from the Energy Department as part of an investigation into how the company qualified for government support and then, a year later, closed a plant, laid off workers, and eventually had to renegotiate the loan guarantee’s terms while working to shore up its finances. Now, the shortcuts at the dawn of the deal identified by government auditors have stoked more questions.
Energy Department officials said their analysts had gathered more than enough information to bet on Solyndra. They said politics played no role, and that they did not give Solyndra or any other company special treatment.
“All applicants within any solicitation are treated the same way,” said Jonathan Silver [9], executive director of the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office [10], which oversees the administration’s $90 billion in spending on promising alternative energy and on green automobile projects. A former venture capitalist, Silver himself has been an early-stage investor in alternative energy technology. He joined DOE after the Solyndra financing.
When the Obama administration announced financing for Solyndra in 2009, the company was only four years old, and had been shipping solar panels for about a year. Officials said the administration was eager to stimulate the economy and spur green energy start-ups. Energy Secretary Steven Chu promised the package alone would create more than 4,000 jobs.
One year later, in March 2010, the signs were not so encouraging. Solyndra’s accountant, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, wrote in an audit being prepared for an initial public offering: “The Company has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders’ deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” Solyndra has since boosted revenues, though some analysts remain skeptical about its long-term prospects.
Two months later, in May 2010, President Obama visited [11] Solyndra’s Fremont plant and heralded the project as “a symbol of promise” for the loan program.
A month after Obama’s visit, Solyndra canceled its planned IPO.
The loan guarantee agreement was among 10 examined by the GAO [12] last year, and Congress’ investigative arm privately singled out Solyndra as one of five applications that had received conditional approvals before outside experts had finished vetting the deals. The GAO did not identify the companies, but said the Energy Department had “treated applicants inconsistently, favoring some and disadvantaging others.”
ABC and iWatch News pieced together a fuller picture of the circumstances and identified the companies involved. The Energy Department confirmed that Solyndra and two other projects were those cited in the GAO report.
The vetting of applicants for government financial packages is not merely a technical, bureaucratic concern. “If you don’t have really strong processes in place, and if you’re under pressure to get a lot of these dollars allocated, you can make unproductive decisions and ones that ultimately put taxpayers’ dollars at risk,” said Rusco, director of the GAO’s natural resources and environment team.
The GAO audit said the rules are clear: Before the Energy Department makes a conditional commitment to guarantee a loan, its “procedures call for engineering, financial, legal, and marketing reviews of proposed projects as part of the due diligence process for identifying and mitigating risk.”
Those reviews are meant to form a full portrait of a project’s strengths and potential weaknesses. The legal review explores everything from the equity stake of individual partners to the fine-point details of contracts. The marketing review is crucial in determining a project’s potential to make sales and build a customer base.
In announcing the Solyndra loan guarantee, the Energy Department noted in a public statement that before offering conditional commitments, the government “takes significant steps to
ensure risks are properly mitigated” and undertakes “a thorough investigation and analysis of each project’s financial, technical and legal strengths and weaknesses.”
Yet when Chu announced conditional approval for Solyndra that March, neither the legal nor marketing reviews had been finalized, iWatch News and ABC have learned. For Solyndra, the marketing review had special relevance because of the financial troubles that soon surfaced.
Energy officials say they felt they had enough marketing information in hand to proceed. “We had an extensive market analysis conducted prior to the conditional commitment for Solyndra which was updated and finalized prior to closing,” spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller wrote in an email.
Energy Department loan director Silver said Solyndra and two other projects secured conditional commitments without completed legal reviews, which can cost companies thousands of dollars. Red River Environmental Products LLC obtained a $245 million loan guarantee to build an activated carbon manufacturing facility in Red River Parish, La.,and a project to build two new nuclear reactors in Burke, Ga., received an $8.3 billion guarantee. That project involves Georgia Power Company, Oglethorpe Power Corporation and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia.
Silver called the decisions to make conditional commitments without full legal reviews routine, and said the arrangements did not subject taxpayers to heightened risk. By the time of the Solyndra closing, six months after Chu’s announcement, he said, all required reviews had taken place.
“A conditional commitment is only an interim step to a loan guarantee. It is not a loan guarantee itself,” said Silver. “Final legal reports would not be expected at conditional commitment. It would only be expected at final close.”
A conditional commitment along with an announcement of financial support from the Energy Department can help startup clean tech firms attract more investors — and distance themselves from competitors lacking the government’s stamp of approval. Final approvals, virtually assured, are granted at closing. By then, companies have already banked on the financial momentum of the agency’s guarantee: The department routinely issues press releases touting its conditional commitments.
Energy boasts of “aggressive timeline” on loan guarantee
Obama’s desire to shift the nation into more environmentally friendly sources of energy while creating jobs during a recession have fueled a raft of projects involving billions of federal dollars.
Against that backdrop, Solyndra was to be an early prototype for government-boosted private sector innovation. The company was the first recipient of an energy loan guarantee through the Obama administration’s $787 billion package of economic stimulus programs. It was the Energy Department’s first loan guarantee since the 1980s.
There’s a long history of federal support for energy exploration. Under past administrations most of those benefiting were from the oil and gas industries. Back room meetings in 2001 between then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force and top oil executives exemplified what many regarded as coziness between government leaders and Big Oil. When Obama took office, he pledged to help the U.S. pull away from dependence on traditional energy.
When announcing the Solyndra loan guarantee two months after Obama took office, the Energy Department boasted of its speed. Secretary Chu had set a target of May — three months into his own tenure — to announce his initial loan commitment, “but today’s announcement significantly outpaces that aggressive timeline,” the Energy Department noted in a press release [5].
“Secretary Chu credited the Department's loan team for their work accelerating the process to offer this conditional commitment in less than two months, demonstrating the power of teamwork and the speed at which the Department can operate when barriers to success are removed,” it said.
That financing came at a time the Department of Energy was thin on staffing in its loan office. When Obama took office in January 2009, the energy loan office had just 15-20 people, director Silver said. Now, he said, it boasts 175 and a rigorous application screening process.
To close the loan, Chu said Solyndra had to meet an equity commitment. It took months to happen. Among the key backers of the $198 million raised: Oklahoma oilman Kaiser’s Argonaut Private Equity, as well as Madrone Capital Partners, a private investment firm affiliated with S. Robson Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Kaiser’s Argonaut Private Equity and its affiliates were the largest shareholder of Solyndra as it pushed for the IPO. Kaiser’s firm remains a “significant financial backer of Solyndra,” Solyndra spokesman David Miller confirmed. The Oklahoma oil magnate hosted a 2007 Tulsa fundraiser for Obama and regularly visits White House staff, visitor logs show.
“I don’t think anybody said we didn’t go through the full process. After the conditional commitment we still went through extensive due diligence. It was still a competitive process,” Miller said. “We applied for the loan guarantee in 2006. It was awarded three years later. It was not like something was done to make this thing really fast. It was a long, arduous process.”
The payoff came with financing that bankrolled a manufacturing plant for the company’s proprietary panels for the commercial rooftop market. The loan guarantee helped trigger 3,000 construction jobs to build the new plant and promised to create another 1,000 fulltime jobs once it was fully operating. “This investment is part of President Obama's aggressive strategy to put Americans back to work and reduce our dependence on foreign oil by developing clean, renewable sources of energy,” Secretary Chu said. “We'll rely on America's innovation, America's resources, and America's workers.”
In September 2009, the deal officially closed, with Solyndra using the $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank to fund construction of the so-called Fab 2 factory, headquarters and customer demonstration facility. Under the terms, taxpayers pick up the tab if the borrower defaults.
At groundbreaking, Chu and then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were on hand. “This announcement today is part of the unprecedented investment this administration is making in renewable energy and exactly what the Recovery Act is all about,” said Vice President Joe Biden, appearing via satellite from Washington.
“The promise of clean energy isn’t
just an article of faith — not anymore,” Obama told Solyndra workers eight months later. “The future is here.”
Yet Solyndra ran into trouble amid analyst concerns its manufacturing costs were too high. It laid off nearly 180 workers, most of them part-time, as it shuttered another plant and cancelled the IPO.
This year, the Energy Department agreed to a restructuring that pushed back the date on which it will repay lenders. Silver said the modification “was an effort on our part to ensure we had the tightest and best structured project.”
He said early hiccups are not unique for such projects and that the company will prove successful. “I have never seen a company go straight up without a bump along the way,” Silver said. “I have no doubt they will continue to hire more people.”
Despite speed, officials dispute taking shortcuts
During interviews and email exchanges with iWatch News and ABC News, Energy Department officials and independent government auditors told two different versions of exactly when the outside reviews are required — and on the significance of the timing. While the GAO questioned the department for green-lighting loan guarantee commitments without all reviews in hand, energy officials say they have discretion to complete those reports in time for closing.
The GAO noted [12] that the advantages of bypassing the outside reviews were significant, “allowing these applicants to receive conditional commitments before incurring expenses that other applicants were required to pay.” It added, “DOE has treated applicants inconsistently. Although our past work has shown that agencies should process applications with the goals of treating applicants fairly and minimizing applicant confusion, DOE’s implementation of the program has favored some applicants and disadvantaged others in a number of ways.”
The Energy Department’s own documents spell out the importance of the pre-approval scrutiny. “Because each project will be unique and each loan guarantee potentially subjects the Federal government to significant financial liability,” an official notice says, “DOE plans to engage in a rigorous review of a proposed project before determining whether it may be eligible for a Loan Guarantee Agreement and subsequently approving and issuing loan guarantees.”
For its part, Solyndra said the outside legal review was a small matter. “My understanding was it was a procedural thing, there was a step that … happened later,” said Miller. “My understanding is it just had to do with the timing of a form.”
The company has yet to turn a profit. But Miller said Solyndra's outlook remains bright, and predicted the company would be cash positive by the end of the year.He said Solyndra has 321 more jobs today than at the time of the loan, has already met the 3,000-force construction goal and aims to attain the long-term hiring benchmark. “As we go cash positive, if you were to get that auditor’s opinion today, it would tell a different story,” he said.
Some analysts are far from convinced.
“If anything, they’re still swimming upstream in a very competitive market,” said Shyam Mehta [13], senior solar analyst at Greentech Media Research.
“The outlook for them has improved relative to, say, a year ago when they had to cancel their IPO or six months ago when they had to close their factory, but it doesn’t mean they are out of the water,” Mehta added. “Their viability is far from resolved, and I think it’s a real risk the company would at some point face the threat of insolvency. I don’t want to be extreme about that, but it is a definite possibility when you are competing in the global market.”
Mehta has long raised questions about the company’s manufacturing costs in a world market where China offers stiff competition. He said Solyndra has focused on cutting those costs, but that there’s no assurance the company — or the government loan guarantee — will prove successful.
“There’s a lot at stake here, not just for Solyndra,” Mehta said. “This is going to be held up as a cautionary tale if things don’t work out for Solyndra. People are watching very closely from all angles.”
Was White House in hurry to spur green jobs — or favor firm backed by fundraiser?
[3]
Outside Solyndra's Fremont, Calif. headquarters. Paul Sakuma/AP
..Kicker:
Green energy boost - or favor?
Featured title:
Skipping safeguards, officials rushed benefit to politically-connected ener
Did White House hurry to spur jobs - or favor firm backed by fundraiser?
Feature in term:
Environment
Independent investigations involving the environment, energy, toxic hazards, worker safety, pollution and climate change.
..Profiles in Patronage
[1]
CarbonNYC/flickr .
A series on the access and rewards for big-money political bundlers.
...
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Source URL: http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/05/24/4710/skipping-safeguards-officials-rushed-benefit-politically-connected-energy-company
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so now Obama is a venture capitalist?
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Politics Return to Article Solyndra Strikes: Obama Silent on Green Energy
Eric Rosenbaum
09/09/11 - 09:41 AM EDT
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- When President Obama was given the nickname President Zero by some Republicans in reference to the fact that in August the U.S. economy created no new jobs, it was just more propaganda from opponents. When it comes to green energy, though, the president now does deserve to be called President Zero.
Why? Well, here's the number of times President Obama mentioned green energy during his major jobs speech on Thursday night: zero. That's right, and that's a pretty big change for a president who has made the formula "green energy=jobs" a major component of previous economic stimulus rhetoric and policy.
The reason for Obama's sudden silence on green energy is as simple as one word -- Solyndra. It's the gift that just keeps on giving to opponents of green energy investment from the government.
If you aren't familiar with the Solyndra debacle by now, it's a U.S. solar company that announced its bankruptcy last week. Before its demise, Solyndra was the most high-profile project funded by the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program, part of Obama's first economic stimulus act. Pictures of Obama touring the Solyndra plant in 2010 and saying it was a model for green energy=jobs are now everywhere in the press. Claims that Solyndra was a pork project of big Obama boosters -- a solar panel to nowhere, which have been around for months -- are now back in the spotlight, with White House logs requisitioned showing the proverbial "nights that Solyndra execs spent sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom" shortly followed by an FBI raid on Solyndra's offices on Thursday.
You can try to make the case that having spoken so much about green energy in past speeches Obama was moving on to new ideas, but plenty else in the speech was boilerplate. So if you heard about Solyndra and have an interest in green energy, and you asked yourself the question, "What is the impact from the Solyndra bankruptcy going to be for the Obama administration?" last night's Obama jobs speech provided an answer. The impact exists, plain for all to see in the fact that a president who had previously always linked green energy to job growth struck any mention of it from a major jobs speech.
It can be said that Obama did make one direct reference to alternative energy, but notably, it didn't invoke solar, wind, geothermal or any energy generation technology. Buried in the middle of the speech was a comment limited to transportation, mentioning fuel-efficient cars and biofuels. It's important to note that advanced vehicle manufacturing has its own Department of Energy loan guarantee program, which has not been a direct focus of green energy critics in Congress. Right after listing fuel-efficient cars and biofuels, Obama mentioned semiconductors as another sector in which America needs to innovate and create. Interestingly, the solar sector is traditionally classified as an off-shoot of semiconductors, but you didn't hear the word solar breathed in the same sentence.
You could strain to find places in the jobs speech when Obama referenced the failure of Solyndra. Obama spoke to the goal of making sure that "manufacturing takes root not in China or Europe, but right here, in the United States of America. If we provide the right incentives and support -- and if we make sure our trading partners play by the rules -- we can be the ones to build everything from fuel-efficient cars to advanced biofuels to semiconductors." Read: Just like Solyndra said in its press release, China was responsible for its bankruptcy.
Here's another: "We now live in a world where technology has made it possible for companies to take their business anywhere. If we want them to start here and stay here and hire here, we have to be able to out-build and out-educate and out-innovate every other country on Earth." Read: This comment is generalized about the corporate sector, but it's also about China kicking our butt in the alternative energy space.
Obama's comment, already a staple of his party, that oil companies should no longer receive tax breaks is another comment that plays great at the Sierra Club Peoria chapter, but isn't specific to the green energy sector. The president also went out of his way to argue for the protection of environmental regulations, which "keep our kids from being exposed to mercury," potentially a signal that he is unwilling to moderate his stance on mercury as he has already done on greenhouse gases and smog rules.
But it's not just about letting the environmental interests know you haven't completely forgotten about them, or about pollution standards as policy tool for requiring a new, or at least modified, energy infrastructure. Given the negative headlines about Solyndra that keep piling up, it would be giving the administration too much of a benefit of the doubt to entertain that idea that green energy didn't make the president's speech on jobs simply because there were fresh ideas to cover this time around. So Obama's silence on green energy raises important questions.
What does the new President Zero Energy imply about energy policy?
Has the Obama administration already done so much in terms of green energy funding that it's simply time to push the money to other players at the table?
Will Obama just be quiet for a while until the Solyndra situation becomes a casualty of the news cycle? (If anything, though, so far it's just getting more play).
Was his command to Congress on Thursday night -- "pass this now" -- a sign that it's no time for any stimulus item that could be a sticking point with Republicans? (Isn't it all a sticking point, though?)
Or, has a fundamental bargaining stance of the Obama administration been weakened in pushing its green energy agenda because any attempt it makes to do so will be met by the dredging up of Solyndra?
The Department of Energy has been moving full speed ahead in closing loan guarantees this week, and much has been made of this, "even after" Solyndra's demise. But the clock has been ticking on getting these deals closed regardless, with a Sept. 30 deadline for these loans to move ahead on the books well before Solyndra reared its ugliest head. Given this, it's not as if the fact that the DOE closed loan guarantees this week means it is undeterred. With the negative Solyndra headlines piling up, the Obama administration has even more reason to move to close as soon as possible on any green energy commitments outstanding.
The New York Times editorial page hailed Obama's jobs speech as the work of "an aggressive president at last." The truth though, is that making that determination is a matter of subject specificity. It was a high-energy performance low on talk about green energy. A hallmark of Obama's jobs policy up until now, the president said not one word about solar, wind, geothermal, take your pick, of former stars of the green energy=jobs argument. Count 'em, zero. Because we all know there was only one word that needed to be said, even if it's not in the dictionary. It starts with an "s" and here's a hint, it's not "stimulus."
-- Written by Eric Rosenbaum from New York.
http://www.thestreet.com/print/story/11243920.html
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anytime any company in america is investigated by Obama's justice dept, we have a duty to
1) criticize obama for interfering with american business indepdence
2) criticize obama for not interfering with american business independence enough
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anytime any company in america is investigated by Obama's justice dept, we have a duty to
1) criticize obama for interfering with american business indepdence
2) criticize obama for not interfering with american business independence enough
Have you remotely followed this story?
The backers of this scam were in the WH at least 20 times and Obama Admn fast tracked the loan to do away with normal safeguards. He also changed it so that the taxpayer is last on the list of creditors to be repaid in bankruptcy costing us 535 MILLION!
Thats ok with you?
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Have you remotely followed this story?
The backers of this scam were in the WH at least 20 times and Obama Admn fast tracked the loan to do away with normal safeguards. He also changed it so that the taxpayer is last on the list of creditors to be repaid in bankruptcy costing us 535 MILLION!
Thats ok with you?
Obama's justic dept is investigating them. Props for that. It can be tough to order an investigation upon a firm that has been so helpful in contributing to the govt functioning. However, the law is the law - and they need to be held accountable.
Holder is leading the charge to investigate them, correct? Nice.
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Obama Officials Sat In On Solyndra Meetings
FBI agent carry dozens of boxes of evidence from Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif., Sept. 8, 2011. (Paul Sakuma/AP Photo)
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Text Size- / +By RONNIE GREENE and MATTHEW MOSK
iWATCH NEWS and ABC NEWS
Sept. 9, 2011
Officials from the Department of Energy have for months been sitting in on board meetings as "observers" at Solyndra, getting an up-close view as the solar energy company careened towards bankruptcy after spending more than $500 million in federal loan money.
Word of the Energy Department's unusual arrangement came as federal agents on Thursday converged on the California headquarters of the failed solar company, focusing fresh attention on the first corporate beneficiary of President Obama's stimulus program to create new clean energy jobs.
The company, which closed its doors last week and laid off 1,100 workers, has been a subject of an ongoing series of stories by the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News in collaboration with ABC News.
"The FBI is here this morning executing a search warrant," Solyndra spokesman David Miller said Thursday. "We'll cooperate with them and given them whatever they are looking for, but certainly it was a surprise," Miller said. "I came to work this morning and they were here and I've been sorting it out."
The early morning search was a joint operation involving the FBI and the Energy Department's inspector general, indicating the focus of the investigation, at least in part, is a $535 million government loan to the solar company. One of the company's primary investors was a top fundraiser for Obama's 2008 campaign.
Questions about the loan have been simmering for months. In 2009, the Energy Department put Solyndra's application on a fast-track for approval, and announced the award with great fanfare. The generous terms of the government loan included the lowest interest of all the green projects benefitting from Energy Department help, iWatch News and ABC News found.
And as part of the deal, the Energy Department agreed that if the company went bust, private investors could recoup their losses before the government. Republicans in Congress called the investment "a bad bet" and said it "put taxpayers at unnecessary risk."
Paul Sakuma/AP PhotoFBI agent carry dozens of boxes of evidence... View Full Size Paul Sakuma/AP PhotoFBI agent carry dozens of boxes of evidence from Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif., Sept. 8, 2011.
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House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said the company's collapse came in sharp contrast to the rosy picture being painted by CEO Brian Harrison on a visit to Washington less than two months ago. He toured Capitol Hill, trumpeting the company's successes and praising the loan. Now, the House committee is inviting Harrison to testify as a witness in a hearing next week.
"As our investigation continues, we hope to hear directly from Solyndra's executives next week -- the same executives who visited Capitol Hill as part of a PR campaign in July and misrepresented the company's financial situation," Upton and and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said in a statement.
In Washington, the crash of the politically-connected firm has unleashed a barrage of fresh questions from House and Senate investigators, who want to know what can be done to recover the losses for the taxpayers.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigative panel will hold hearings next Wednesday. After Thursday's raid, members of a House committee investigating Solyndra said they have invited OMB Deputy Director Jeffrey Zients, Executive Director of DOE's Loans Programs Office Jonathan Silver and Solyndra chief financial officer W.G. "Bill" Stover to testify.
"The FBI raid further underscores that Solyndra was a bad bet from the beginning and put taxpayers at unnecessary risk," said Reps. Upton and Stearns. "President Obama's signature green jobs program went from a darling of the administration, to bankruptcy, to now the subject of an FBI raid in a matter of days."
Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera on Thursday still defended the decision to give Solyndra federal backing, saying the department "conducted exhaustive reviews of Solyndra's technology and business model prior to approving their loan guarantee application."
"Sophisticated, professional private investors, who put more than $1 billion of their own money behind Solyndra, came to the same conclusion as the Department: that Solyndra was an extremely promising company with innovative technology and a very good investment," LaVera said. "In the end, the company completed the project they said they would complete, were producing the products they said they would produce and were selling those products around the world."
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/obama-officials-sat-solyndra-meetings/story?id=14476848
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What did obama know and when did he know it.
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Obama fundraiser at George Kaiser's home? (Flashback: Private fundraiser with Solyndra key investor)
Tulsa Now ^ | 3/19/2007 | Tulsa Now
Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama surprised the staff of Tulsa's Educare Center, 2511 E. Fifth Place, with a surprise visit on Monday.
Obama was in Tulsa for a private fundraiser.
"I've been a big proponent of early childhood education for some time," said Obama. "I'm extremely pleased and proud of Oklahoma for the ground-breaking work that's being done here."
Obama's campaign had kept his stop at the Educare Center so quiet only a two staff members of the staff knew he was coming.
Those two, Co-Director Carol Rowland and Associate Director of Early Childhood Education Lyn Lucas, were sworn to secrecy.
"We didn't find out until Friday, and we were told not to tell anyone," said Rowland.
Obama strolled through the center, asking questions of the staff and peeking into rooms where children were stretched out for early afternoon naps.
"Can I have a mat, too?" he said at one point.
After the private fundraiser at the home of George Kaiser, Obama was scheduled to travel on to Oklahoma City for a public rally, a fundraiser and an appearance on Larry King Live.
USRufnex: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070319_1_BR1_Democ85858&breadcrumb=Breaking%20News
Barack Obama visits Tulsa By Staff Reports 3/19/2007 2:43 PM
(Emphasis added)
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This is going to get ugly.
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This is going to get ugly.
Team Dildo would prefer to talk about bachmann and palin than obama tossing away 500 million to his fundraisers.
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Solyndra investigation expands with raid of executives' homes and files
iwatch ^ | iwatch
CEO and founder of politically connected company questioned on day of raid. Now some Democrats wonder if they'd been misled
Federal agents have expanded their examination of the now-bankrupt California solar power company Solyndra, searching the homes of the company's chief executive, a founder, and a former executive, examining computer files and documents, the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News and ABC News have learned.
Agents visited the homes of CEO Brian Harrison and company founder Chris Gronet. Agents also visited the home of a third executive involved in the company from the start, according to a source who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because of the legal sensitivity of the situation.
Gronet, reached at his home Friday morning, did not dispute that his home was searched by federal agents a day earlier.
“I’m sorry,” Gronet said in an interview. “You probably understand full well that I cannot comment.”
Solyndra spokesman David Miller confirmed agents visited Harrison’s home on Thursday, when the FBI and Energy Department Inspector General arrived at the company's headquarters in Fremont, Calif., seizing boxes of records.
“Yeah, they did go to his house and speak to him briefly,” Miller said. “I don’t know what they may have taken. I believe they took a look at his computer.”
The third executive, identified by the source, could not be reached for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at iwatchnews.org ...
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Solyndra: Illustrating a Recovery Act Supply Chain
White House Blog ^ | 5.26.2010 | Matt Rogers
President Obama is in Fremont, California today to visit Solyndra, Inc, an innovative solar panel manufacturer that is building a new facility with funding made possible by the Recovery Act. Here's a look at what they're doing:
The direct benefits of this investment are easy to see. The plant expansion now underway has already enabled the creation of over 3,000 construction-related jobs and Solyndra estimates that the new factory could create as many as 1,000 long-term jobs in operations and supply. Likewise, a formerly empty field will soon be home to a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant that produces clean energy products that can be exported to the world.
What the television cameras won’t capture are the indirect benefits of supporting Solyndra. The impact of Solyndra’s success is being felt throughout the chain of companies that supply Solyndra with goods and materials.
The project is creating jobs around the country. Construction materials for the facility itself are being manufactured by workers in Arkansas, Washington, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and 18 other states. The advanced manufacturing equipment is being made by workers in Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado, and 8 other states. The raw materials to run the facility will come from 15 states including Wisconsin, Ohio, and Kentucky. When the first solar panels are shipped in late 2010, they will be delivered by freight companies and installed by even more new workers.
The map below from Solyndra shows where they have ordered the materials to construct the new facility. Many of the companies in these states have added workers of their own to handle the new orders.
This map from Solyndra shows the states supplying advanced manufacturing equipment to the company.
The Recovery Act’s investment in clean energy is having a ripple effect throughout our economy. A recent survey by Frost and Sullivan of 676 clean energy companies found that while only 3 percent of those companies directly received Recovery Act funds more than 50 percent recognized a positive impact from that legislation.
We still have a long way to go to get America’s economy back on track and to make the United States the world leader in clean energy technologies, but companies like Solyndra and Recovery Act investments like this one are helping drive progress across the country.
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http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/09/obamas-crony-capitalism
Reason Magazine•reason.org
Obama's Crony Capitalism
What the Solyndra debacle reveals about Obama's economic strategy
A. Barton Hinkle | September 9, 2011
The president's address on jobs last night included some soaring phrases, but it left out one crucial word that epitomizes his approach to economics: Solyndra.
Fourteen months ago, the president was using his sonorous baritone to deliver soaring rhetoric about how his policies helped launch that now-broke company, which made cylindrical solar panels. The administration fast-tracked Solyndra's loan guarantee through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—i.e. the stimulus—perhaps because Solyndra's principal backers just happened to have donated huge sums to the Obama election campaign. Washington guaranteed more than a half-billion in loans to Solyndra on the promise of 4,000 jobs.
"This new factory is the result of those loans," the president said at the Fremont, Calif., facility—a facility The Washington Post termed a "signature project of President Obama's initiative to help create clean-energy jobs." The result of those loans now? Solyndra has shut its doors, its 1,100 former employees are jobless, and the taxpayers are on the hook for perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.
Viewed in isolation, the Solyndra story is mildly troubling. But it is nothing Washington has not seen before. The late, great columnist Molly Ivins wrote some crackerjack pieces about the return on investment that corporate sharpies used to get from their campaign donations to Republican politicians. The Solyndra story sounds like the same old, same old.
Except it isn't. The Solyndra story encapsulates a much bigger issue than mere crony capitalism, bad as that is. Because Solyndra is not alone. The Obama administration has sunk billions into loan guarantees for dozens of other renewable-energy companies as well.
This is known as the political allocation of economic resources, and it entails all kinds of problems. The first and most basic: It's wrong. Government should not be picking winners and losers in the marketplace.
Problem No. 2: corruption. When government puts its massive thumb on the market scale, corporations have a huge incentive to try to win government's favor. Hence: campaign contributions and lobbyists galore. Progressives who want to keep money out of politics should help libertarians build a high wall between economy and state.
Problem No. 3: the distortion of market incentives. Although federal policy was far from the only reason for the recent housing bubble and crash, it played a significant role. And even when market intervention does not produce a crash, it can still produce a creature like the Chevy Volt—an electric vehicle for which there is zero demand despite a whopping $7,500 federal tax credit for purchase—or Cash for Clunkers. That idea, now universally derided, seemed bright at the time, at least to some. In retrospect, it seems as smart as paying people to burn down their houses to stimulate demand for new ones.
Such market distortion shifts resources from more productive to less productive purposes, which inevitably produces less prosperity—fewer jobs at lower pay. Want evidence? See last month's New York Times story "Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises," which concluded: "Federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show." For the Times to concede that government intervention in pursuit of progressive political goals has not worked is like National Review criticizing a Republican. The proof has to be overwhelming.
The fourth problem inherent in the political allocation of economic resources is the biggest: The underlying assumption that it is a good thing because politicians and bureaucrats have more knowledge, wisdom and virtue than everyone else.
But they do not. First, there is simply no way a government of even leviathan proportions can know more about, say, Joe's Auto Parts than Joe himself does. To think it can know more about the entire auto industry than the industry itself is absurd. Repeat this formula for all other industries.
Government and politicians also like to think they know what is best for America. Energy Secretary Steven Chu epitomized this attitude when he argued for new lightbulb standards by saying, "We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money." (The morons.) But since America is simply the sum of all the citizens who live in it, then to say the government knows what is best for the country is to say the government knows more about what is best for Abigail Anderson of 423 Morris Lane, Wilmington, Del., than Ms. Anderson does herself—and likewise for each of America's other 311 million citizens. Absurd.
Then there is the notion that government action proceeds from a place of virtue because politicians are not motivated by self-interest. Instead, like shepherds tending the flock, they seek only to protect the sheep (stupid and helpless creatures that they are) from the wolves at the edge of the clearing. It is a flattering conceit, and has no more to do with reality than an LSD trip.
It is not disinterested altruism that makes Obama think he can reshape the energy sector for the better, or conjure up jobs where employers do not want them. Such beliefs stem from unbridled hubris. And the result of hubris can be summed up in one word: Solyndra.
A. Barton Hinkle is a columnist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This article originally appeared at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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Corruption: 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.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=583962&p=1
During the Clinton administration, when the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House became a favorite place for campaign contributors to rest their weary wallets, the infamous Johnny Chung made the observation that the White House was like a subway turnstile. You put your token in and you got inside.
Getting inside the White House was easy for billionaire investor George Kaiser, who made multiple visits to the White House and appeared at White House events next to administration officials. One of the prime investors in the green energy company Solyndra, Kaiser put quite a few tokens in the White House turnstile.
As the Daily Caller reports, Kaiser himself donated $53,000 to Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign, divided between Obama for America and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. A world-class bundler, Kaiser also raised $50,000 to $100,000 from others for the senator's campaign.
Despite a warning from Solyndra's own accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers that the company's business model was suspect and raised "substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern," President Obama visited the company and gave it a glowing endorsement as a government-picked winner alongside electric cars and high-speed rail.
Despite its spotty business record, Solyndra was the first recipient of green stimulus cash in the form of a $535 million guaranteed loan. The loan not only escaped serious scrutiny, according to the Government Accountability Office, but also was — despite denials by White House officials — fast-tracked by an administration that monitored every step in the process.
Last Thursday, House Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., sent a letter to the White House asking for all correspondence among administration officials, Solyndra and its investors. "We have learned from our investigation that White House officials monitored Solyndra's application with (Energy Department) and Office of Management and Budget officials during the course of their review," the letter says.
Kaiser wasn't the only one involved with Solyndra putting tokens in the turnstile. Solyndra itself spent more than $1 million from 2008 to 2011 lobbying Congress for various green legislation from which it would benefit, including the "Solar Manufacturing Jobs Creation Act."
Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Solyndra board members donated at least $27,400 to various Democratic campaigns and organizations. Ben Bierman, executive vice president of operations and engineering for Solyndra, donated $5,500 to Obama's re-election effort. Karen Alter, senior vice president of marketing, put up $23,000 in 2008.
The ever vigilant Christopher Horner notes in a piece for BigGovernment,com that Solyndra is based in the Fremont, Calif., district of Rep. Pete Stark. When he was chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee's health subcommittee, Stark played a critical role in squeezing ObamaCare through Congress.
That process, with its Cornhusker Kickback and Louisiana Purchase, also involved the dispensation of favors for political support. Was Solyndra a favor to Stark for his efforts? We still don't know why and how some 1,700 ObamaCare waivers were granted — 50% to unions representing just 7% of the population.
Defenders of Obama's green energy policies say other industries have received subsidies or incentives and are involved in the political process. True, but absent oppressive regulations and restrictions, industries such as oil, coal and natural gas can compete in the marketplace and turn a profit without them. Solar cannot.
The Solyndra affair is more than just the latest example of crony capitalism. It is the Chicago Way brought to Washington, D.C. — reciprocal back-scratching with taxpayer dollars. The whys and hows of it need to be brought out into the, er, sunlight.
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Solyndra CEO questioned by FBI
news.cnet.com ^ | Sept 9 2011 | Martin LaMonica
The CEO of government-backed solar company Solyndra was visited by the FBI yesterday but agents did not search his house, according to a Solyndra representative.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the home of Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison was searched after the FBI conducted a surprise raid at Solyndra's Fremont, Calif., solar panel plant. ABC News reported today the FBI also searched the homes of former CEO Chris Gronet and another executive, who is said to be co-founder Kelly Truman.
Solyndra made solar collectors by covering glass tubes with thin-film solar cells. (Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)
Solyndra spokesperson David Miller confirmed that agents came to Harrison's home but no search occurred. "FBI agents spoke to Brian Harrison at his house, they did not search it," Miller said.
An FBI representative today could not confirm or deny whether agents visited or searched anyplace other than Solyndra's headquarters, saying it is a sealed investigation. The FBI and the Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General spent the better part of yesterday in a joint search of Solyndra's offices where agents were seen taking documents.
It's still not clear what information the FBI and Energy Department are seeking, but it is expected to be related to the company's $535 million loan guarantee it secured from the Department of Energy in 2010 to build the Fremont factory. The Energy Department's Office of Inspector General conducts audits and investigations around the agency's programs.
The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations next week is scheduled to hold a hearing seeking to find out more about the loan guarantee Solyndra received. Invited guests include the executive director of the loan guarantee program and Solyndra's CEO and CFO.
Solyndra abruptly shut down its operations last week, laying off more than 1,000 people and on Tuesday declared bankruptcy. Through bankruptcy, the company indicated that it may have buyers for its technology and its operations.
The loan guarantee for Solyndra has opened the Obama administration to criticism and raised questions over the effectiveness of backing specific companies, rather than setting broader policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions or encouraging green-technology businesses.
The case of Solyndra specifically, though, has drawn so much attention because of the size of its loan guarantee and because there had been signs for months that the company could not keep pace with rapidly falling solar costs from Asian manufacturers.
"Their cost structure was not competitive, that piece was a widely held assumption in the industry. The question was whether they could get it down fast enough to get to cash-flow positive," said Rob DeLine, the vice president of marketing at Miasole, another Silicon Valley solar startup.
In a letter yesterday to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to request that Solyndra CEO Harrison testify at the hearing. "Less than two months ago, Mr. Harrison met with us and other Committee members to assure us that Solyndra was in no danger of failing," wrote Energy and Commerce Committee member Henry Waxman.
Solyndra, which had raised over $1 billion from private sources, had reportedly tried to gain more financing to continue operations but was unable to, leading to the shutdown.
One worker who was at Solyndra's office yesterday during the FBI raid told the San Jose Mercury News that the company's manufacturing process regularly yielded flawed components, which meant it had to throw away some of the equipment it was making.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20103991-54/solyndra-ceo-questioned-by-fbi/#ixzz1XUMLqIEp
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So, what's your Friday night looking like?
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Solyndra CEO questioned by FBI
news.cnet.com ^ | Sept 9 2011 | Martin LaMonica
Posted on September 9, 2011 4:24:00 PM EDT by NoLibZone
The CEO of government-backed solar company Solyndra was visited by the FBI yesterday but agents did not search his house, according to a Solyndra representative.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the home of Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison was searched after the FBI conducted a surprise raid at Solyndra's Fremont, Calif., solar panel plant. ABC News reported today the FBI also searched the homes of former CEO Chris Gronet and another executive, who is said to be co-founder Kelly Truman.
Solyndra made solar collectors by covering glass tubes with thin-film solar cells. (Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)
Solyndra spokesperson David Miller confirmed that agents came to Harrison's home but no search occurred. "FBI agents spoke to Brian Harrison at his house, they did not search it," Miller said.
An FBI representative today could not confirm or deny whether agents visited or searched anyplace other than Solyndra's headquarters, saying it is a sealed investigation. The FBI and the Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General spent the better part of yesterday in a joint search of Solyndra's offices where agents were seen taking documents.
It's still not clear what information the FBI and Energy Department are seeking, but it is expected to be related to the company's $535 million loan guarantee it secured from the Department of Energy in 2010 to build the Fremont factory. The Energy Department's Office of Inspector General conducts audits and investigations around the agency's programs.
The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations next week is scheduled to hold a hearing seeking to find out more about the loan guarantee Solyndra received. Invited guests include the executive director of the loan guarantee program and Solyndra's CEO and CFO.
Solyndra abruptly shut down its operations last week, laying off more than 1,000 people and on Tuesday declared bankruptcy. Through bankruptcy, the company indicated that it may have buyers for its technology and its operations.
The loan guarantee for Solyndra has opened the Obama administration to criticism and raised questions over the effectiveness of backing specific companies, rather than setting broader policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions or encouraging green-technology businesses.
The case of Solyndra specifically, though, has drawn so much attention because of the size of its loan guarantee and because there had been signs for months that the company could not keep pace with rapidly falling solar costs from Asian manufacturers.
"Their cost structure was not competitive, that piece was a widely held assumption in the industry. The question was whether they could get it down fast enough to get to cash-flow positive," said Rob DeLine, the vice president of marketing at Miasole, another Silicon Valley solar startup.
In a letter yesterday to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to request that Solyndra CEO Harrison testify at the hearing. "Less than two months ago, Mr. Harrison met with us and other Committee members to assure us that Solyndra was in no danger of failing," wrote Energy and Commerce Committee member Henry Waxman.
Solyndra, which had raised over $1 billion from private sources, had reportedly tried to gain more financing to continue operations but was unable to, leading to the shutdown.
One worker who was at Solyndra's office yesterday during the FBI raid told the San Jose Mercury News that the company's manufacturing process regularly yielded flawed components, which meant it had to throw away some of the equipment it was making.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20103991-54/solyndra-ceo-questioned-by-fbi/#ixzz1XUMLqIEp
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With such financial successes like Solyndra it only makes sense to give President Downgrade another $500+ billion to blow.
Rock on, Obamanomics!
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With such financial successes like Solyndra it only makes sense to give President Downgrade another $500+ billion to blow.
Rock on, Obamanomics!
Team dildo refuses to discuss this.
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Team dildo refuses to discuss this.
I know, right? All that you do is call people dildo and they don't wanna have a civil conversation with you.
Some people!
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I know, right? All that you do is call people dildo and they don't wanna have a civil conversation with you.
Some people!
humor everyone, defend this.
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"Team tool attack this"
We are a sensitive nation.
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Team dildo refuses to discuss this.
What can they say? They cried and cried about Halliburton and now it turns out their God-King is just as bad. Hahahaha.
How many more loans like this do you think there are? There is no way this is the only one.
Obama = crony capitalist Chicago thug. They can't live with that.
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Can't chat right now.
Hanging out with my dildo friends from team kneepad.
Us assholes will be back for a serious discussion later.
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Can't chat right now.
Hanging out with my dildo friends from team kneepad.
Us assholes will be back for a serious discussion later.
This troll consistently tries so hard and still fails. I feel for you.
You're like the Little Engine who couldn't.
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Obama's Pet Billionaire at Solyndra Make Take White House Down
Townhall.com ^ | September 11, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
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.
While the White House and Congressional Democrats feign surprise at the collapse of what was described as "the most hyped startup in the crowded Solar Energy field," it appears Obama Administration representatives were either easily duped or willingly blind to the facts. ABC News reports that Department of Energy officials have been regularly attending Solyndra board meetings for months as the company "careened towards bankruptcy" after blowing through the more than half a billion taxpayer dollars.
Early press reports following Solyndra's bankruptcy announcement disclosed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed by shareholders and executives of Solyndra to the Obama 2008 campaign. One of the company's largest investors, George B. Kaiser of Tulsa, reportedly contributed $53,500 personally and bundled large amounts more for Obama in 2008. Kaiser is a billionaire with banking and oil and gas interests that rank him among the wealthiest people in the world. Kaiser also visited the White House 16 times between 2009 and 2011. The White House public records indicate that three of Kaiser's visits were on March 12, 2009 and one the following day in which he met with "a Senior Advisor, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council." The $535 million loan was officially approved one week later.
That loan guarantee agreement negotiated on behalf of Solyndra was fast-tracked through approval by Obama Administration officials at the Department of Energy and "included the lowest interest of all the green projects" benefitting from DoE funding, according to ABC News. The guarantee also subordinated the taxpayer's credit position to private investors, like George Kaiser, should the company go bust. Republicans warned that the deal "put taxpayers at unnecessary risk" but their warning went unheeded. This means Kaiser will be at the front of the distribution line when Solyndra assets are liquidated. Chances of any recovery for the taxpayers is somewhere between slim and none.
The startup company also spent over a million dollars lobbying Washington politicians in the last three years; $550,000 in 2010 alone.
At the invitation of company execs, Barack Obama made a highly publicized visit to the Solyndra facility in Fremont, California in 2010. Just weeks before his visit to Solyndra, PricewaterhouseCoopers issued the results of an audit of the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2010 that should have given the President and the White House considerable pause. Noting that in the first five years of operation the company had sustained $558 million in losses, the audit report said Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
Undaunted, Obama arrived amid great fanfare on May 26 and highlighted the solar energy company as the poster child of the $25 billion green energy grants and subsidies doled out through his ill-fated Economic Stimulus. Obama confidently proclaimed that companies "like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future."
The same week, solar energy investment analysts were already warning that Solyndra's business model was seriously flawed and that the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the company "are going to be a huge waste." The same analysts criticized the Obama Administration's green energy policy as "misguided" for throwing vast sums at "a fledgling startup" (Solyndra) while the established solar companies like Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts were already struggling for market share and economic survival. A few months later, Evergreen closed US operations, laid off 800 workers, and moved their company to China.
Less than two months ago, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison visited Capitol Hill "trumpeting the company's successes and praising the [government] loan." According to Henry Waxman (CA) and Diana DeGette (CO), Harrison assured them that Solyndra was in a "strong financial position." Apparently, Harrison's verbal reassurance was enough due diligence oversight on behalf of the taxpayers to satisfy the two leading Democrat green energy evangelists. They now express surprise that Harrison "did not convey to us the perilous condition of the company."
The Solyndra debacle is rapidly becoming a White House scandal. It is far too symptomatic of an Administration that is founded not on principle, but on Chicago-style cronyism and political corruption in the worst sense of the term. With the passage of his Stimulus, Obama professed great pride that it was free of "earmarks and pet projects" that he said are fraught with "abuse." Apparently, it's only pork, a pet project, and abusive if somebody other than Obama does it.
Completely oblivious to scandalous failures like Solyndra and other claims of cronyism from the first Stimulus hanging over the White House, Obama summoned the theater of a joint session of Congress this week to press for another half trillion dollars for Son-of-Stimulus – he prefers to call it the American Jobs Act. He offered a weak, glancing one line reassurance to Congress that the White House could be trusted to be good stewards of the money; "And to make sure the money is properly spent, we're building on reforms we've already put in place. No more earmarks. No more boondoggles."
What? At least this time he didn't say he was putting Joe Biden in charge of the checkbook.
________________________ ________________________ ____________
HECK OF A JOB OBAMA!
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Obama's Pet Billionaire at Solyndra Make Take White House Down
Townhall.com ^ | September 11, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
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.
While the White House and Congressional Democrats feign surprise at the collapse of what was described as "the most hyped startup in the crowded Solar Energy field," it appears Obama Administration representatives were either easily duped or willingly blind to the facts. ABC News reports that Department of Energy officials have been regularly attending Solyndra board meetings for months as the company "careened towards bankruptcy" after blowing through the more than half a billion taxpayer dollars.
Early press reports following Solyndra's bankruptcy announcement disclosed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were contributed by shareholders and executives of Solyndra to the Obama 2008 campaign. One of the company's largest investors, George B. Kaiser of Tulsa, reportedly contributed $53,500 personally and bundled large amounts more for Obama in 2008. Kaiser is a billionaire with banking and oil and gas interests that rank him among the wealthiest people in the world. Kaiser also visited the White House 16 times between 2009 and 2011. The White House public records indicate that three of Kaiser's visits were on March 12, 2009 and one the following day in which he met with "a Senior Advisor, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council." The $535 million loan was officially approved one week later.
That loan guarantee agreement negotiated on behalf of Solyndra was fast-tracked through approval by Obama Administration officials at the Department of Energy and "included the lowest interest of all the green projects" benefitting from DoE funding, according to ABC News. The guarantee also subordinated the taxpayer's credit position to private investors, like George Kaiser, should the company go bust. Republicans warned that the deal "put taxpayers at unnecessary risk" but their warning went unheeded. This means Kaiser will be at the front of the distribution line when Solyndra assets are liquidated. Chances of any recovery for the taxpayers is somewhere between slim and none.
The startup company also spent over a million dollars lobbying Washington politicians in the last three years; $550,000 in 2010 alone.
At the invitation of company execs, Barack Obama made a highly publicized visit to the Solyndra facility in Fremont, California in 2010. Just weeks before his visit to Solyndra, PricewaterhouseCoopers issued the results of an audit of the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 16, 2010 that should have given the President and the White House considerable pause. Noting that in the first five years of operation the company had sustained $558 million in losses, the audit report said Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
Undaunted, Obama arrived amid great fanfare on May 26 and highlighted the solar energy company as the poster child of the $25 billion green energy grants and subsidies doled out through his ill-fated Economic Stimulus. Obama confidently proclaimed that companies "like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future."
The same week, solar energy investment analysts were already warning that Solyndra's business model was seriously flawed and that the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the company "are going to be a huge waste." The same analysts criticized the Obama Administration's green energy policy as "misguided" for throwing vast sums at "a fledgling startup" (Solyndra) while the established solar companies like Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts were already struggling for market share and economic survival. A few months later, Evergreen closed US operations, laid off 800 workers, and moved their company to China.
Less than two months ago, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison visited Capitol Hill "trumpeting the company's successes and praising the [government] loan." According to Henry Waxman (CA) and Diana DeGette (CO), Harrison assured them that Solyndra was in a "strong financial position." Apparently, Harrison's verbal reassurance was enough due diligence oversight on behalf of the taxpayers to satisfy the two leading Democrat green energy evangelists. They now express surprise that Harrison "did not convey to us the perilous condition of the company."
The Solyndra debacle is rapidly becoming a White House scandal. It is far too symptomatic of an Administration that is founded not on principle, but on Chicago-style cronyism and political corruption in the worst sense of the term. With the passage of his Stimulus, Obama professed great pride that it was free of "earmarks and pet projects" that he said are fraught with "abuse." Apparently, it's only pork, a pet project, and abusive if somebody other than Obama does it.
Completely oblivious to scandalous failures like Solyndra and other claims of cronyism from the first Stimulus hanging over the White House, Obama summoned the theater of a joint session of Congress this week to press for another half trillion dollars for Son-of-Stimulus – he prefers to call it the American Jobs Act. He offered a weak, glancing one line reassurance to Congress that the White House could be trusted to be good stewards of the money; "And to make sure the money is properly spent, we're building on reforms we've already put in place. No more earmarks. No more boondoggles."
What? At least this time he didn't say he was putting Joe Biden in charge of the checkbook.
________________________ ________________________ ____________
HECK OF A JOB OBAMA!
What investigation? With Holder as AG, this just gets added to the long list of mess that he's swept under the rug. Why that guy isn't in an orange jumpsuit, making little rocks out of big rocks, is beyond me.
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Obama abused the public trust to fund pet solar firm
By: Examiner Editorial | 09/11/11 8:05 PM
President Obama called for a second stimulus package during his Thursday night address to a joint session of Congress. That sounds like a dog-bites-man story -- an unremarkable request from a president wedded to liberal theories that encourage government intervention in the economy. But in context, this request was truly extraordinary. The very morning of Obama's speech, FBI agents raided the corporate offices of Solyndra, a California solar panel manufacturer that had announced earlier in the week that it is filing for bankruptcy. The FBI also searched the private residences of the company's executives.
According to news reports, the raid was sparked by allegations of misuse of the $535 million loan guarantee Solyndra received from the Department of Energy in 2009 under the Obama economic stimulus program. Solyndra was the first company to benefit from this particular federal loan program, despite being on extremely shaky financial ground at the time Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the award.
As The Washington Examiner and others have chronicled, Solyndra wasn't just any stimulus beneficiary. It was special. It was a company in whose board meetings Obama officials had been sitting for months. It was a company that Vice President Biden said was "exactly what the Recovery Act is all about." Obama himself had traveled to Solyndra's California headquarters in May 2010 to deliver a glowing speech about the company as exemplifying the success of his clean-energy stimulus programs. Meanwhile, Solyndra was so shaky that even a $535 million dose of cash, recklessly awarded on behalf of taxpayers, was not enough to stave off bankruptcy.
That context makes Obama's request to Congress last week an incredible act of chutzpah. He 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.
For that reason, we look forward to Wednesday's hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in which Solyndra's sweetheart deal will be scrutinized. Obama abused the public's trust with subsidies for Solyndra. The only question now is just how badly that trust has been abused.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/09/obama-abused-public-trust-fund-pet-solar-firm
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SOLYNDRA SCANDAL WIDENS: Auditors Raised Red Flags About Obama's Favorite Green Company
Business Insider ^ | 9/12/2011 | Zeke Miller
Posted on September 12, 2011 11:00:11 PM EDT by icanhasbailout
Two months before the federal government provided a $535 million federal loan to the company, auditors found that Solyndra, the bankrupt solar company, had significant financial difficulties, Bloomberg reports.
In a deepening scandal that threatens to ensnare members of the Obama administration, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the company's finances “raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” Two months later the company was awarded the loan under a green jobs program.
...
House Republicans have been investigating terms of the loan since earlier this year — and will hold a hearing on it on Wednesday. Republicans assert that the Obama administration fast-tracked the loan without following proper procedures.
...
Bloomberg reported that the administration rejected the company's request to renegotiate the terms of the loan the day before the company went under.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
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Feds probe Solyndra's upbeat July report
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | September 13, 2011 | by David R. Baker
Six weeks before closing their solar-panel factory and laying off most of their 1,179 employees, Solyndra executives assured members of Congress that the Fremont company was in no danger of shutting down.
At the same time, Solyndra, which received $528 million in federal stimulus loans, was telling investors and the U.S. Department of Energy that it would have to cut its revenue forecasts. Soon, the company was scrambling to find more funding.
The committee has asked Harrison and Solyndra's chief financial officer, W.G. Stover, to attend Wednesday's hearing. Committee members say they want Harrison to explain his earlier, upbeat comments about the company's fiscal health.
"These assurances appear to contrast starkly with his company's decision to file for bankruptcy last week," wrote Reps. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles and Diana DeGette of Colorado, the committee's ranking Democrats, in a letter to one of their Republican colleagues. "He did not convey to us the perilous condition of the company and the Committee should know why."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
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Solyndra execs likely to testify on Hill next week
washington examiner ^ | washington examiner
Executives from solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, which received over a half a billion dollars in loan guarantees from the Obama administration before filing for bankruptcy last week, are in negotations with the House Energy and Commerce Committee to openly testify before Congress next week, according to Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., the chairman of the panel's subcomittee on oversight and investigations.
The company's president and chief executive, Brian Harrison, and W.G. Stover, Jr., its chief financial officer, were asked to testify as part of tomorrow's committee hearing on the questionable loans, which have embroiled the Obama administration in what Stearns deemed a "full-blown scandal." The company's offices were raided by the FBI last week.
Stearns, speaking to bloggers at the Heritage Foundation, said the executives called the committee staff yesterday and asked whether they would be allowed to delay their testimony until next week. If they were granted the additional time, they said they'd agree not to exercise their Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions.
“We’re a little flexible if they’ll come next week and testify freely and openly and transparently," Stearns said. “I can’t say for sure, but most likely they’ll come next week and I think it would be very worthwhile for them to speak transparently and without taking the Fifth.”
Stearns said that the committee has a subpeona and could still force them to appear tomorrow, but he said it would be a "positive step" if they would actually answer questions.
Witnesses for tomorrow's hearing currently include Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Department of Energy's loans office.
(Excerpt) Read more at campaign2012.washingtone xaminer.com ...
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If you only needed one reason to see why it would be completely asinine to gift President Downgrade with another $500 billion then look no further. Crony capitalism thuggery at its finest.
Just think, if President Downgrade had spent more time actually worrying about the economy and less time rewarding his union thugs and crony capitalist allies then this country might actually be in a better position than it is today. Oh well, 2 years of Democrats controlling everything shot to shit because they were too busy blowing money on their constituents.
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WH Pressured OMB on Solyndra Decision
National Review Online ^ | 9/13/11 | Andrew Stiles
Posted on September 13, 2011 11:17:02 PM EDT by Nachum
The Washington Post uncovers more White House e-mails regarding the Solyndra loan scandal, and it’s not pretty: The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s new factory, newly obtained e-mails show… The August 2009 e-mails, released toThe Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
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Bleeding us with ‘green jobs’
NY Post ^ | September 13, 2011 | Michelle Malkin
Posted on September 14, 2011 6:50:24 AM EDT by lowbridge
With the scandalous bankruptcy of Solyndra (which received $535 million in stimulus funds and is now under investigation by the FBI) hanging overhead, President Obama wisely whitewashed any mention of “green jobs” out of his latest address to Congress.
But buried in the details of his latest “jobs” bill are yet more big green boondoggles that will reward cronies, waste taxpayer dollars and make no dent in the jobless rate.
Solyndra, filed for Chapter 11 last month and laid off 1,110 employees. Obama officials had met with Solyndra execs at least 20 times; the green cheerleader-in-chief personally visited and promoted the company in 2009 before his administration fast-tracked approval for the loans.
Solyndra is now the third solar company to go belly-up this year. Yet the Energy Department is doubling down on failure. As the FBI and House GOP investigators launch a probe into Enron-style accounting problems with Solyndra’s books, Energy is doling out more than $850 million in new loan guarantees for another California solar firm sponsored by NextEra Energy, along with nearly $200 million more for separate solar-manufacturing facilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Emails link Solyndra to Biden office
Townhall.com ^ | September 14, 2011 | Bob Beauprez
The rapidly evolving scandal surrounding a $535 million government loan to Solyndra, a California solar energy company, that shuttered its doors and filed bankruptcy last week, has now been connected to the office of Vice-President Joe Biden.
Emails obtained by investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee and released to ABC News demonstrate how deeply involved the White House was at the highest levels in fast-tracking the approval of the politically well connected start-up in direct conflict with numerous private as well as government warnings that the survival of the company was very doubtful.
On March 10, 2009 according to ABC a White House budget analyst warned in an email that "This deal is NOT ready for prime time." That followed an email from Ronald A. Klain, Chief of Staff to the Vice-President on March 7 that said, "If you guys think this is a bad idea, I need to unwind the W[est] W[ing] QUICKLY."
The White House and the Department of Energy pressed forward and fast-tracked the approval of the first green energy loan of the Obama Administration in March, 2009. In addition to questions about possible political cronyism and corruption, the terms of the loan included a subordination of the taxpayer's interest to private investors and the lowest interest rate of any such loan approved by the Obama Energy Department.
As reported earlier this week on these pages, numerous industry analysts had raised questions about the viability of Solyndra's business model. Peter Lynch, a solar industry analyst, explained in simple terms to ABC News the folly of Solyndra's plan; "It's very difficult to perceive a company with a model that says, well, I can build something for six dollars and sell it for three dollars. Those numbers don't generally work."
In 2008, the investment analysis agency Fitch rated Solyndra "B+" – right between "highly speculative" and "speculative." Dun & Bradstreet rated the company only "fair."
PricewaterhouseCoopers had filed a public audit with the SEC that Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
New information disclosed that Solyndra first approached the Bush Administration for a loan. That request was denied during the Administration's final weeks in office. Solyndra ramped up lobbying efforts with the new Obama Administration taking advantage of the billions earmarked in the new President's $800 billion economic Stimulus legislation. Company executives visited the White House meeting with some of the Administration's most highly placed officials. Those visits included four by a principle investor in Solyndra that was also a major contributor and bundler for Obama's 2008 campaign in just two days the week prior to the announcement of loan approval.
In the early days of the Obama Administration, the DoE analysts were questioning the risk of the Solyndra request. One exchange was particularly prescient saying, "a major outstanding issue" was that Solyndra's financial numbers showed the company would run out of cash in September, 2011. It did.
Not only did the Obama Administration ignore all the warning signs and the advice of their own government analysts, Barack Obama scheduled a visit to Solyndra in 2010 to hail the company as "leading the way to a brighter and more prosperous future."
For months before the collapse of Solyndra two weeks ago, Energy Department officials had been sitting in on regular board meetings apparently blind to the facts.
Questions of company operations and political corruption have already prompted investigations by the FBI, the Inspector General for the Energy Department, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee who will begin hearings tomorrow, September 14.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/emails-obama-white-house-monitored-huge-loan-connected/story?id=14508865
Damn - this is getting seriously bad for obama.
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Elections Have Consequences: Bush Administration Rejected Solyndra Loan
Pajamas Media ^ | 9-14-11 | PJ Tatler
________________________ ________________________ ___
Worser and worser:
The White House also noted to ABC News that the Bush administration was the first to consider Solyndra’s application and that some executives at the company have a history of donating to Republicans. The results of the Congressional probe shared Tuesday with ABC News show that less than two weeks before President Bush left office, on January 9, 2009, the Energy Department’s credit committee made a unanimous decision not to offer a loan commitment to Solyndra.
The geniuses in the Obama administration don’t seem to realize just how damaging this is to their case.
Put the Bush DOE rejection of Solyndra together with the emails that broke last night:
The August 2009 e-mails, released to The Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company’s project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to the e-mails, which were provided by Republican congressional investigators…
And you have a true scandal that reaches directly into the Obama White House, and which clearly fits into the overall Obama “green” agenda. The main question demanding an answer now is, What did the president know and when did he know it?
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WHAT DID OBAMA KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT!!!!!!!!
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Solyndra employee to Mark Levin: “Everyone knew that the plant wouldn’t work”
Hotair ^ | 09/15/2011 | Allahpundit
Yes indeed. Everyone knew. That was the point of last night’s post. And in fact, what you’re about to hear isn’t the first case of a Solyndra employee insisting that the whole enterprise was widely known to be a bust inside HQ. Remember this snippet from a recent Mercury News story?
One former employee, Mohammed Walahi, who began working as a process technician for Solyndra in 2005, showed up at the company Thursday morning to file a workers’ compensation claim for a repetitive stress injury and was surprised to see FBI agents instead of security guards. Solyndra’s employees were laid off with no severance pay and an immediate end to health benefits, and Walahi, 41, has a wife and two young children to support.
He lashed out at his former employer, saying Solyndra manufactured solar panels that often contained imperfections that had to be thrown away.
“At least $100,000 a day was thrown away,” Walahi said. “If they are wasting $100,000 a day, how much is that a month or a year? Of course that’s going to lead to bankruptcy.”
The latest news is that the Treasury Department is launching its own probe into Solyndra, which, given that the FBI and the Energy Department are pursuing investigations too, tells me that we’re firmly in five-alarm ass-covering mode now. Here’s the scariest part of the new report from ABC:
The $535 million loan to Solyndra included a quarterly interest rate of 1.025 percent, the government bank reported in July. Of 18 Energy Department loans cited in the bank’s report, Solyndra’s rate was lowest. Eight other Energy Department projects, each also backed by the Federal Financing Bank, came with rates three or four times higher, the report shows…
Department of Energy officials said the rates for all of its green energy loans were set by the bank using a formula, and Solyndra’s favorable terms were not the result of special treatment.
“All borrowers under the [government loan guarantee] program receive the same treatment,” Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera wrote to iWatch and ABC News in response to questions.
Given that we’re still handing out billion-dollar loans to green ventures, it’s actually more troubling to think the department’s interest-rate formula might be so skewed that it would consider Solyndra a safe investment when even low-level employees knew the business was set to crash than that this was the product of some backroom deal. How many more green boondoggles are we on the hook for thanks to that “formula”?
Here’s what I still can’t figure out: Why would a White House that staked so much political credibility on “green jobs” want a business as risky as this to be its showcase venture early on? You would think they would have gone out of their way to stick with very safe green investments at the beginning to build a track record of success. Then, as the public got comfortable, they could branch out into riskier/more cronyistic projects. As it is, by the time this is over, the term “green jobs” will practically qualify as profanity. Why would the White House blow it that badly? Who gained? Click the image to listen.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE AUDIO IMAGE
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Obama Tainted by Loan Guarantees to Solar Firms
Townhall.com ^ | September 15, 2011 | Michael Barone
One factor favoring President Obama's re-election, according to a recent article by political scientist Alan Lichtman, is the absence of scandal in his administration.
Lichtman may have spoken too soon.
The reason can be capsulized in a single word: Solyndra.
That's the name of a company that manufactured solar panels in Fremont, Calif. (which voted 71 percent for Obama in 2008).
Solyndra 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.
It was, Vice President Biden said, "exactly what the Recovery Act was all about." Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize winner, said it would help "spark a new revolution that will put Americans to work." It was part of the Obama administration's program to create so-called "green jobs," which we were told were the key to future economic growth.
The beauty part is that a loan guarantee doesn't require the federal government to shell out cash unless and until the recipient defaults on the loan. If the company's business plan works out, the loan costs the government virtually nothing.
Obama paid a visit to Solyndra on a trip to California in May 2010. "It is here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter, more prosperous future," he said. Hailing the green jobs loan guarantee program, he went on, "We can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra."
The White House even prepared a video about the company. The Solyndra personnel sound articulate and intelligent, and seem to be really nice guys.
Unfortunately, there were other things going on at Solyndra for those with eyes to see. As my Washington Examiner colleague David Freddoso reported, an audit of the company performed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers two months before Obama's visit noted that the firm had accumulated losses of $558 million in its five years of existence.
The auditor noted that Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
One of the original investors in Solyndra was Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser, who was also a major contributor to Obama's 2008 campaign. In early 2011, Kaiser and other investors provided an additional $75 million in financing to Solyndra. They did so on condition, approved by the Energy Department, that they receive priority over previous creditors, including the government.
On Aug. 31, while Obama was vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy. On Sept. 8, the day of Obama's "American Jobs Act" speech to a joint session of Congress, FBI agents conducted searches of Solyndra's headquarters and the homes of the firm's CEO and founder. Newspaper accounts speculate that the government may wind up losing the whole $535 million.
The House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee conducted a hearing on Solyndra on Wednesday. Documents have been sought not only by Republicans but also by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, former chairman of the committee.
It's possible the subcommittee will find nefarious goings on at Solyndra. Was the administration's decision to grant a loan guarantee of half a billion dollars influenced by a major campaign contributor? Did the Energy Department disregard obvious caution flags about the company? Did somebody slip somebody a bribe?
But let's assume for the time being that there was no criminal conduct here, no violation of government procedures, no fraud. Let's assume everyone in the administration acted with good faith.
There's still a scandal -- the scandal of the government handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to unproven and speculative businesses. Even the shrewdest venture capitalists lose money on most of their investments. But when they lose, it's their money, not ours.
The scandal is still going on. The Energy Department has been busy handing out more loan guarantees in the past few weeks -- $150 million to 1366 Technologies of Lexington, Mass. (73 percent for Obama in 2008), 80 percent of $344 million to Solar City of San Mateo, Calif. (72 percent for Obama in 2008). Will one of them be the next Solyndra?
The real scandal is the "green jobs" loan guarantee program itself. And the ones getting scammed are American taxpayers.
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The Solyndra saga
Obama administration put taxpayers on hook for failed venture
An FBI agent stops a driver from entering the Solyndra headquarters in Fremont, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2011.
(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
September 15, 2011
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-solar-20110915,0,3127441.story
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.
Solyndra Inc. was a California-based maker of advanced solar panels. Its executives talked a good game, and the company attracted substantial private investment. It also caught the fancy of the Obama administration just as a pile of money came available from the $787 billion stimulus legislation of 2009.
Joe Biden Before you can say, "Let the sun shine in," Solyndra was basking in the limelight. The federal government backed loans of more than $500 million to the company. President Barack Obama toured its manufacturing plant. He touted its plans to hire 1,000 new workers and embraced its fuzzy math about producing enough solar panels in its expanded facility to replace the power from eight coal-fueled electricity plants. "It's here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way to a bright and prosperous future," the president declared at the time.
Fast forward to the not-so-bright and prosperous present: Solyndra is bankrupt, its factory shut down and its workforce on the street. The FBI raided its headquarters earlier this month, presumably suspecting fraud. Its top executives failed to appear Wednesday at a hearing on Capitol Hill where Republicans were itching to grill them.
A series of emails between White House officials and Office of Management and Budget watchdogs suggests that Solyndra got its federal guarantees prematurely, under pressure from the Obama administration, which wanted to stage an event featuring Vice President Joe Biden announcing the guarantees at a ground-breaking ceremony. A perfect example of shovel-ready stimulus!
But staffers reviewing the deal were voicing concerns about not having sufficient time to conduct proper due diligence on the financial underpinnings of the loans. The evidence suggests taxpayer dollars were put at undue risk for the sake of an administration photo op.
The Energy Department says it was the Bush administration that first made Solyndra a candidate for loan guarantees and set the timetable for consideration. The White House claims its communication about the project reflected merely a "quite active interest" in the outcome. Yet those explanations ring hollow in light of OMB emails referring to "rushed approvals" and "time pressure." As one note said, "There isn't time to negotiate."
No time to negotiate on behalf of the taxpayer? That's maddening.
There are a lot of questions around this deal. At least one investor in it was a prominent Obama fundraiser. Some Democrats say Solyndra executives may have misled them. If the federal government can't responsibly manage the money it's doling out in the name of economic stimulus, then it has no business doling out the money — period.
At a minimum, this episode illustrates the perils of sinking taxpayer dollars into risky private ventures. A thorough review may turn up many other problems, but this much we know: Solyndra made a bad bet. It ran into a buzz saw of cut-rate competition from China, and it made faulty assumptions about commodity costs and the supposed advantages of its product. The result: belly-up in no time flat.
Government loan guarantees to promote innovation aren't a bad idea. The U.S. has an interest in finding new and old energy sources — see the other editorial on this page. Public investments, however, must be based on due diligence. Not big money politics. Not stimulus rollout timetables. Not sun-struck ideology. The government gets on thin ice when it starts picking business winners and losers.
A nickel's worth of business sense and a dime's worth of caution might have saved Uncle Sam millions — and the Obama administration a heap of trouble.
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Solyndra the 'tip of the iceberg'?
Published: Sept. 15, 2011 at 9:19 AM
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The White House deflected criticism that it put pressure on officials to get major stimulus funding through for bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra.
The FBI and officials from the U.S. Department of Energy last week raided Solyndra's offices in San Francisco. The raid was apparently in connection with $535 million in loan guarantees from the U.S. Energy Department, though the FBI didn't offer details about the raid.
Republican critics of U.S. President Barack Obama claim e-mail messages from 2009 suggest his administration used political pressure to get the loan through to showcase his commitment to a green economy, something Obama trumpeted in his State of the Union address in January.
GALLERY: Obama tours Solyndra in California
White House spokesman Jay Carney, in statements to reports, said accelerating the process for Solyndra was part of an effort "to get an answer to make a scheduling decision."
He suggested much of the original process, meanwhile, was from policies left over from the administration of George W. Bush.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., during testimony on Capitol Hill, said he felt Solyndra might be just "the tip of the iceberg" regarding a series of stimulus funding decisions.
© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/09/15/Solyndra-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/UPI-70081316092757/print/#ixzz1Y2c5NtGX
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Obama admin. ignored warnings about Solyndra
AP via Yahoo! News ^ | September 15, 2011 | by Matthew Daly
Posted on September 15, 2011 8:04:12 PM EDT by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration ignored repeated warnings about a clean-energy loan program that has become an embarrassment for the White House amid the collapse of a California solar energy company that received more than $500 million in federal loans.
At least three reports by federal watchdogs over the past two years warned that the Energy Department had not fully developed the controls needed to manage the multibillion-dollar loan program that provided more than $528 million to Solyndra Inc., a now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer.
Even as Obama praised the company's plans to hire more than 1,000 workers, warning signs were being sent from within the government and from outside analysts who questioned Solyndra's viability as a "going concern."
Emails obtained by The Associated Press show that a White House official dismissed reports about Solyndra's gloomy future. An email from Greg Nelson, a White House official who had been involved in the planning of Obama's May 2010 trip to Solyndra's headquarters, to a Solyndra executive downplayed a July 2010 news story in a trade publication that criticized the company's financial health.
"Seems B.S.," Nelson wrote.
A 2009 report by the Energy Department's inspector general warned that the DOE lacked the necessary quality control for the loan guarantee program, which was created in 2005 to support clean-energy projects that could not obtain conventional bank loans due to high risks.
In July 2010, the Government Accountability Office said the Energy Department had bypassed required steps for funding awards to five of 10 applicants that received conditional loan guarantees.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Boooom!
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AP on Solyndra: WH ignored at least three watchdog reports criticizing Energy Department’s loan
Hot Air ^ | 9/15/11 | Allahpundit
Posted on September 15, 2011 10:26:16 PM EDT by Nachum
That’s not all they ignored, either. According to e-mails obtained by the AP, one White House official who helped plan Obama’s big photo op at the plant earlier this year dismissed a news story about Solyndra’s financial troubles with, “Seems B.S.” A few months earlier, the same chump ignored the alarm bells being rung by accounting firms and instead accepted at face value Solyndra’s assurances that they were doing well, writing, “Fantastic to hear that business is doing well — keep up the good work! We’re cheering for you.”
Everyone knew the company was toast. Except the people in charge of your money.
A 2009 report by the Energy Department’s inspector general warned that the DOE lacked the necessary quality control for the loan guarantee program, which was created in 2005 to support clean-energy projects that could not obtain conventional bank loans due to high risks.
In July 2010, the Government Accountability Office said the Energy Department had bypassed required steps for funding awards to five of 10 applicants that received conditional loan guarantees.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
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