Earlier this week, Stimulus beneficiary Evergreen Energy bit the dust. Then, Ener1, a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles and recipient of Stimulus largesse, filed for bankruptcy. And today, the Las Vegas Sun reports that Amonix, Inc., a manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the Porkulus, will cut two-thirds of its workforce, about 200 employees, only seven months after opening a factory in Nevada.
I foresaw this spate of bad news last November. As I explained yesterday,
In a previous post, I compared renewable energy spending in the 2009 Stimulus to a green albatross burdening the President. I argued that Stimulus spending was inherently wasteful, because politics invariably corrupts government’s investment decisions. The result is taxpayers losses on bankrupt companies that existed only by the grace of political favoritism, a la Solyndra. I predicted the green stimulus would haunt the President, in the form of a slow drip public relations nightmare, as a litany of bad investments go belly-up in the run up to the 2012 elections.
Mr. President, are you still sure you want to “double down” on renewable energy giveaways?
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Not a single mention of this will be on any of the leftists news media.
The Fed loans were covered by collateral.
Please cite your source for this. The charge stands that $500+ million went to Solyndra alone. It has also been recently reported that they are in bankruptcy proceedings and the they were trashing millions in assests. The German company that supplied some of this material is owed $12 million, all that asset is now destroyed in the bottom of dumpsters (they were glass tubes). Exactly what kind of collateral does the government have? Is it the same type “collateral” that was used in the auto bailouts where we are writing of well North of $20 Billion?
Has anyone looked into if any of these companies were contributers to the Obummer coffers?
This is bad – Done. But it would be a very, very blind statement to say that reducing support for green energy is a “Free Market” – if you want a truly free market, we need to end oil and gas subsidies as well. If we did, many renewable, including wind, would be market competitive. The “left” is to blame – but so is our “right.” Big oil and gas firms provide huge lobbying campaigns on capital hill that have kept market barriers for clean energy artificially high and required subsidies and government support (NO!) for green tech. Additionally we need to take into account Econ 101: government policy aims to meet a social optimum and increase overall economic welfare – this IS a good thing when it is done in via scientific and economic analysis.
Do you know for sure that Evergreen Energy received stimulus $?
I cannot find a source…
I think EverGreen Energy is being confused with EverGreen Solar…
yes, Evergreen Solar is the fed stimulated co that went bankrupt, not Evergreen Energy…
This is really bad for the economical growth of the country. I hope that the leaders know what they are doing and where they are investing the money. They need to invest in business that will create more jobs for everyone and also develop the economy like it use to be a couple of years ago. People are losing their patience and they want to get out of the crisis we are all facing.
Jack,
“Incentives and profits” sounds great, but isn’t that kinda anti-socialism?
FDR made the same classical mistake and made the depression last 8 more yrs than it had to
Masterful illiteration!
Well said.
You’re right! What was I thinking? We can’t fundamentally change the country with ideas like mine. Please forgive my forages into logic.
Masterful alliteracy!
and the truth comes out. at least some americans have a IQ above that of a house cat
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