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. I warned last year that the sun was setting on these solar green schemes:
Solyndra is (and maybe will soon be "was") a green company that was showered with 535 million dollars of Department of Energy loan guarantees last year (the first such guarantee the Department had issued in years). Steven Chu, Obama's handpicked energy guru (with zero experience in the real world), could not wait to send the dollars flowing, issuing the guarantee before he even hit the three month mark as Cabinet Secretary. He hailed it, as did Joe Biden, as a miracle in the making. Barack Obama toured the factory and hailed it as "leading the way towards a brighter and more prosperous future"
How is that working out?
Solyndra canceled an initial public offering because its auditor said its operating losses and negative cash flow raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern.
Well maybe it was prosperous for executives and suppliers but not for the company and certainly not for the taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.
One of the biggest investors in the company was Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser - a big bundler for the Obama-Biden campaign. Not to worry for Mr. Kaiser. The administration is looking to extend hundreds of millions of dollars in additional loans (our money) to the venture. Needless to say, where is the major media that was so busy reporting on the Bridge to Nowhere (and that has also been conspicuously silent in the billions of dollars Robert Byrd sent to West Virginia to raise monuments to himself). Throwing good money after bad doesn't really matter when the money is Other People's Money and you are providing a return on investment for
The landscape will be littered with failed solar farms, giant windmill plantations, shuttered ethanol plants. All will costs us billions and billions. All will stand as evidence of the bankruptcy of not just the companies involved but of Barack Obama's crony capitalism and delusional visions.
The scary part: he is not done either. He does not fold his hand, he doubles down. Watch the touting of green jobs in his labor plans to be announced next week.
Update:
Update: The tale gets murkier and murkier by the minute.
The Washington Post reported that Solyndra was granted the loan guarantee despite government auditors questioning the viability of Solyndra.
Furthermore, the protocols that were supposed to be followed before loan guarantees would be granted were ignored by the Department of Energy. These guidelines and filters are put in place to protect taxpayers. They were waived by the Obama team. One Republican skeptic, Representative Cliff Stearns, chairman of the Energy and Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said he was "concerned that there was a hurry to get this money out of the door and that companies and individuals that supported the president were among the beneficiaries.'' Many companies sought such help-only some met the tests. Why were the normal rules waived for a Democratic bundler's pet green scheme? Experts outside the government also warned that Solyndra was a disaster waiting to happen.
Republicans have been eager to explore how this loan guarantee -- and others made to companies connected to Obama donors -- were extended. The response from the administration has been stonewalling the request with administration Democrats allies decrying these inquiries as "fishing expeditions."
The American people have been taken to the cleaners. And , the administration is proud to declare they will not be stopped and that the loan guarantees, grants, and other taxpayer help will continue to flow. A spokesman for the Department of Energy blithely states: "While not every company will succeed in this competitive industry, we believe that solar generation and manufacturing play a vital role in helping America win the clean energy race.
The giveaways will go on and on until someone stops this thievery.
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