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By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
Published Thursday, March 22, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Updated Thursday, March 22, 2012 | 12:58 p.m.
J. Patrick Coolican
Related story
5 things to know about Copper Mountain SolarSun archives
Here’s the predictable response to President Barack Obama’s trip to Boulder City’s Copper Mountain Solar plant on Wednesday: Solar is for hippies; government doesn’t create jobs; Solyndra, Solyndra, Solyndra.
From the top.
Solar:
The government’s investment in the solar industry has begun to pay off, showing rapid growth. As Michael Grunwald noted last year in Time, during one two-month period in 2011, we added 7,000 megawatts of solar projects to the U.S. pipeline, which he notes is the equivalent of seven nuclear reactors.
Michael Yackira, the CEO of NV Energy, told me last year that the price of solar cells dropped 20 percent during the first five months of 2011 alone.
Nonsense. Drill now!
Government and innovation and jobs:
As Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute recently wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle, much of the important technology we use today can be traced to government, especially the Department of Defense. Microchips, the Internet, GPS and jet turbines are all heavily reliant on the Pentagon.
They cite UC Davis sociologist Fred Block, who looked at R&D Magazine’s annual list of the top 100 innovations and found the percentage relying in some way on government funding had increased during the past few decades; in 2006, 77 of 88 domestic winners were at least partially funded by government.
Socialism!
Solyndra:
The angry man on the radio told me I should be outraged about Solyndra.
Solyndra is the solar company that received a government loan guarantee and went bust. Of 40 companies that received loan guarantees totaling nearly $40 billion, two went bad, including Solyndra, which had some Democratic heavies among its financial backers, though Republicans were also investors. The White House ignored warnings that the company could be beaten by Chinese competition and then asked that a layoff announcement be postponed until after the 2010 election. The loan default was for more than $500 million.
A fiasco, no doubt, but we should have some perspective. Remember the $6.6 billion of American currency on shrink-wrapped pallets that went missing from Iraq?
Of course not. It wasn’t on your channel.
Obama gave a fairly listless campaign speech masquerading as an official event in the solar fields of Boulder City.
The sun beat down on my head. I kept applying sun screen, and it occurred to me that this would be another election cycle with almost no dialogue or argument about global warming and what to do about it.
My statement about two companies having gone bad in the federal clean energy loan program is, as the Nixon Administration might say, "inoperative." I grabbed some reporting from last fall and new failures have emerged.
Here's The New York Times, reporting on a government audit released last month: "The audit, led by Herbert M. Allison Jr., a former financial executive and senior Treasury Department official, found that the government could lose as much as $3 billion of the total loan commitments so far of $24.3 billion granted to 30 companies under two Energy Department programs."
And here's CBS News reporting on other troubled companies in the program.
Still and all, a drop in the bucket compared to botched wars in the Middle East or tax subsidies for oil companies.
I remember the money being wasted on the Afghani surge too.
Just because a massive rip off occurred in a totally unrelated matter does not excuse the Solyndra mess or the doubling down on it when it was an obvious failure. Cronyism and corruption and washing/reimbursing campaign contributions thru govt energy grants to cronies anywhere is not excusable.
Hippies? Who was this guy Eric Cartmann?
MUCH of what we see as advanced tech comes from NASA. We need to continue to push advanced tech but we also need to know that a lot of things being touted as advanced solar or hybrid tech is only first generation stuff. Continued tech needs to occur as most of the planets success in this sphere comes from our space and military programs.
Look at the Mars Rover which is solely powered by solar and is like the energizer bunny.
Big oil is not going anywhere soon nor is the Chinese massive use of oil. Nor can we balance the Chinese massive ground, air, and water pollution from their ongoing industrial revolution; by destroying our economy in the name of the environment.
Well done Mr. Coolican, I laughed out loud at your "angry man on the radio" comment.
Dennis Hill, Do you know the factual reasons for Solyndra's failure or just the conservative propaganda. Hint: Why are we instituting tariffs on Chinese made solar panels?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/busine...
So because pollution is happening elsewhere we should pollute here is your message Dennis? Really?
Solar panels are another technology that the government helped to create. NASA invented them.
John McCain says this will be the nastiest presidential campaign ever. I fear he is correct, and that nothing of substance will be discussed.
U.S. helps Solyndra, it fails.
China helps its solar companies, they succeed.
U.S. response: Place tariffs on Chinese solar products costing Americans more for these products.
Maybe if China sells enough solar products, the U.S. can get back enough money to cover the Solyndra investment.
LOL! Solyndra hippies! Here is the lateset group of hippies that are getting sued over their Solyndra style lies. This would be Frist Solar with 50 MW of thin-film near Primm and they want to build more! It won't even work!
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.c...
and they are getting sued over it! http://www.nasdaq.com/article/pomerantz-...
and the local Sierra Club-Toyiabe Chapter wants the Reid Gardner plant shut down. They think all of the Union workers left unemployed will work for First Solar, but as you heard, only 5-ten full time jobs are created by the average solar fiasco. And all of the enviros who don't seem to care about the desert tortoise are not even saying anything about Obama ignoring climate change. Do you belong to the Sierra Club? Why?
Remarkable! Just plain remarkable how the left hates "big" business unless, of course, it's their "big" business. Their mantra? It's "greedy" Wall Street & corporations that are behind all the ills we face, unless, of course, it's their businesses upon which they lavish huge loans and big bailouts! And when the businesses they favor with "crony capitalism" fail? Well, that's no big deal. It's always the "other" guy at fault. This is why the November elections are crucial in stopping this mad dash to European style Socialism by Emperor Osama Obama and his fellow travelers. Vote smart this November and run their tails out of Washington, D.C., folks!
The scandal of Solyndra was not properly explained...Not even close!
Besides the 500 million dollar loss to the tax payer, the DOE and Obama administration gave the loan in second position to the original investors - SO, when the auction takes place, whatever assets are sold, the tax payer stands in the back of the line...There will be ZERO recovery on that $500M
No one...No Bank" No hedge fund manager would ever subordinate a half-billion dollar loan! No collateral required ? The DOE actually went out of their way to structure the loan that way... This goes beyond fraud...This was fleecing the American tax payer @ large!
Speaking of solar, NASA has a couple of solar-powered robots cruising around on the the frigid surface of Mars that just keep going and going many years after they were due to expire. (OK, one of the rovers is pretty much dead because it got stuck in sand, but still.)
Let's see the drill, baby, drill fossil fuel blowhards pull off that feat of futuristic energy engineering.
doubledown: "There will be ZERO recovery on that (Solyndra) $500M."
And I suppose the check for $1.3 trillion is in the mail from the Iraqis to pay for Bush's nation building adventure over there? It's not in the mail? But we were promised ...
Jimmy, Never mind a spell checker don't you have a context checker? Were you OK with the $6.6 billion that disappeared under the Bush mis-administration?
Jerry,
Unlike you I am not a blind cheerleader for "big" business and think when they break laws and harm people they should be held accountable and when they do ethical things that should be pointed out as well. Other than that your comment veers into brain damaged territory.
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Your welcome,
It is frustrating dealing with the neuronally challenged and nice to know there are some smart people like you online.
It was more than two Coolican, several, representing billions in loan garuntees are on the ropes. Solar is crapping out not growing.
Solar is expensive and ineffective right now
http://reason.com/blog/2012/03/22/obama-...
Europe is cutting back on their subsidies because it has been a 2 dacade long flop.
Cooligan hasn't met a government subsidy he didn't like...
Do you really think the internet we have today is all thanks to the government?
Haliburton can do things few if any companies can do. Solyndra can do things lots of companies can do. Go bankrupt. Kudos for going bankrupt using taxpayer grant money.
Abound Solar - $400 million
EnerDel - $116 million
BeaconPower - $43 million
First Solar - $1.5 billion (not dead but losing money and laying off employees)
EverGreen - $486 million
SpectraWatt - $500,000 government grant
Sun Power - $1.2 billion (not dead but now holds more debt than the total value of the company)
There are several more
When will solar replace oil?
Should we remove the 'subsidy' that allows 'Big Oil' to take a tax credit when they hire somebody?
It will be fun watching all these intermittent, unreliable, expensive alternative sources surging into the grid. And watching our electric bills "necessarily skyrocket".
I see PRG is posting propaganda material from the laughably named "Reason" magazine. I'll stick with credible and reliable academic research and he can stick with propaganda. Meanwhile the world moves on. I wonder if PRG knows the failure rate for private venture capitalists?
The article is missing one key component and that is the ongoing costs to the rate payer and the utility to keep these solar farms producing.
I would rather see government spending $$ on research for nuclear fusion which would put an end to the oil issue once and for all. Last time I check solar only works 50% of the time depending on the time of year.
Solar power? What the ...? If the Good Lord intended for the sun to make electricity He would a put oil rigs and coal mines on it!
Dang hippie socialist Muslim community organizers, anyway! Somebody ought to check those green commies for their long form birth certificates (real ones, not fakes!) cos they sure don't act like the real Americans that live down there in the Deep South. I mean, they got full sets of teeth but don't eat no meat? What the ...? And they ain't got a single rusted, brokedown automobile in their front yard!
Joe McCarthy was right! That's downright unAmerican.
1 of 2
There are three key points to be made about Solyndra and the involvement of the Obama Administration:
(1) The Federal government guaranteed a huge private loan to Solyndra, $500+ Million. One of the Obama-appointed officials involved in making the loan, a man, was married to a woman lawyer who was a partner in the law firm which represented Solyndra. Her online professional resume touts her expertise as an "energy lawyer". There is a pretty decent paper trail showing the law firm used its "juice" in the form of this couple to push the Solyndra loan along to closing with the Federal guarantee.
(2) When Solyndra ran into cash flow problems, and needed to borrow more money to pay its bills, the Feds would not lend more money and the new private lender wouldn't make the new loan unless the Federal government "subordinated" its lien on the company's assets securing the original loan to a lien securing this new private loan. Subordination of a loan means the lender agrees to move from "first in line to get paid" to "second in line to get paid" when a failing company's assets are sold. No self respecting banker ever subordinates his bank's loan/lien to the loan/lien of another banker. That's Banking 101. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Yet, the idiots in the Department of Energy and White House, including Solyndra's lawyer's hubby, agreed to subordinate the loan/lien the Federal government guaranteed, because they didn't want Solyndra to fall into bankruptcy and embarrass their department or the Obama Administration's for their push for renewable energy as one means of propping up the economy. Around that time Solyndra's founder quit as CEO and a "new" CEO was brought in. It's hard to tell whether the "new" CEO knew he was going to end up with a professional "black eye" when the firm ultimately failed.
2 of 2
(3) Despite the cash from the new private loan, a few months later Solyndra ran out of money and laid off most of their employees, including a friend of mine's brother (which is why I watched this case so closely). Even though he was laid off and stiffed out of his last paycheck, my friend's brother was told not to talk to anyone about the company or he'd "never get another job in Silicon Valley" again. What was VERY ODD was that despite the layoffs, Solyndra didn't file bankruptcy right away, as the financial press had expected. My bankruptcy lawyer friends in California were telling me that "Nobody wanted to take the case because it might end up being very ugly". Finally, a junior partner in a big bankruptcy law firm took the case, and she talked Solyndra's chief financial officer into signing a declaration, under penalty of perjury, describing why Solyndra failed economically. When I read that "First Day Declaration", I saw some "holes" in terms of a complete narrative of what went wrong with Solyndra's short lived business plan. Just a few days after the bankruptcy filing, there was a search warrant raid of Solyndra's offices, as well as a raid of the new CEO and CFO's houses. The company's founding CEO had cleverly bailed out before the S hit the fan. So yes, the bankruptcy law community was right. The case became ugly because the company's bankruptcy lawyer put the CFO in the terrible position of having testified, in writing, under penalty of perjury, and then being on shaky ground in "taking the 5th" after his house and office were raided a few days later. Ultimately, all of Solyndra's assets were sold off to pay that new private lender described in (2) above, and the Federal government got nothing from the asset sale and instead became liable to pay $500+ Million on its original loan guarantee.
The moral of the Solyndra story is that if you or me, lacking "juice", wanted to start a solar panel factory, the Federal government would blow us off if we asked for a loan guarantee. However, because Solyndra had someone with juice on the inside of the Obama Administration, the $500+ Million loan guarantee was made by the Feds, and sadly the people who "juiced" the loan guarantee were morons who lacked the basic business law training to avoid making the mistake of subordinating away the first lien. Obama's "point man" on energy programs was a former sports/fitness executive whose sole qualification was that he had been a contribution bundler for Obama's election campaign. Sadly for the U.S. taxpayer, one can go to Harvard Law School, not take any business or banking courses before graduating and before running for President. I'll take a Harvard MBA over a Harvard Law grad any time, as a business decision maker on my behalf.
I don't give a Rats you know what if it were a Dumo or Republicrat....either way, they spent my tax dollars on a Solyndra pit to pay off wealthy donors and keep the environmental libtards happy by doing something that appeared green. It is always politics with this President. I just wish for once that he would do something that actually is not underhanded or slimy. I want to vote for him again but he is making it nearly impossible....
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Solyndra went bankrupt AFTER THE GOVERNMENT gave them a grant. We will NEVER see that money again. But just like everything else, put it on top of the deficit and move on not MAJOR to see here.
The green industry is far off from where it needs to be in order to be successful and do good for the country. All it is now is a waste of money.
Dennis, no energy company should receive subsidies. The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. I'm against corporate welfare. Period.
Mark,
Private venture capital failure rate is high. But they are risking their own money, not taking money of others by force and handing it over to the politically well connected. There is ample evidence that government due diligence is terrible (no matter what party is in power).
The Iraq war cost $1 trillion dollars and what did we get. 100,000 dead Iraqis. Thousands of "informant" Iraqis come over here and took our jobs.
How many of this are millionaires?
Some one got the 60 billion.
The only thing correct about this article is the sarcastic headline.
Mr. Coolican....
Nail on the head, Patrick.
Give me the warm power of the Sun
Give me the steady flow of the waterfall
Give me the restless power of the wind
Give me the comforting glow of the wood fire
But please - take all your atomic - poison power
away
From the 'No Nukes' Concerts (MUSE) 1979
Damnable Hippies the Doobie Brothers with John Hall & James Taylor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB44z6Klh...
why is everyone so upset about solyndra? so an investment didn't pay off. solyndra represented less than 2% of the total monies allocated for that loan program. financial institutions' failed investments amounted to losses in the trillions and a number significantly higher than 2 of them failed as a result. yet no one decrying solyndra seems to be nearly as upset about said financial institutions.
Why would anyone believe a poster using a fake name like "CynicalObserver"?
I look forward to the anticipated flood of posting by Patrick_R_Gibbons against conservatives since he wrote this occurs "no matter what party is in power". The Republicans have a current majority in the House but for some reason (perhaps some kind soul could point me in the correct direction) I just haven't seen Pat's posts taking the Republicans to task in any kind of visible way. There must be hundreds here somewhere to balance the large number of posts about the use of government 'force' against poor honest business billionaires.
mschaffer = Obama/Democratic Party apologist
Coolican writes "A fiasco, no doubt, but we should have some perspective. Remember the $6.6 billion of American currency on shrink-wrapped pallets that went missing from Iraq?"
Essentially the author's argument is that it is okay for the Obama administration to steal taxpayer money and give it to their campaign donors/friends as the administration before them did the same.
This kind of acceptance of corruption is eating away at the country, and with time will lead to its fall.
Those to support politicians like Ron Paul are essentially the ones who wish to make a stand against such corruption (of which both Bush and Obama are guilty).
When President Obama gives up his gas-guzzling presidential motorcade of big Cadillac's and replaces this fleet of vehicles with the little green Chevy Volts, I might give his renewable energy programs a second look. And lets not forget the huge expenses and fuel consumption associated with Air Force One. There are completely solar powered aircraft Mr. President that have flown around the world.
Come on Mr. President, get in line with what you preach.
Can't wait for Obama second term when the whole fasmily goes on separate vacations.
Thank you, Cynical Observer, for your openness providing some inside observations regarding Solyndra. This act was very kind of you, one hopes and believes that the truth will set us free of the darkness that shrouds so many disdeeds.
If the US Government would have invested all that money that was tragically placed into a corporation, Solyndra (that is not a person in reality), and placed whatever green power generation to any and every US Citizen who has a dwelling that NEEDS power, they would at the very least, have had COLLATERAL and the ability to get something back should things so south as it did with Solyndra.
Let's take care of our People/Citizens, in the United States of America, and not be propping up corporations of cronnies.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
Cynical: The good thing is "FBI Agent" and "Bankruptcy Lawyer" are now classified as "green jobs" by the Obama administration.
I'm not completely opposed to government endorsing alternative energy but when the guys making the decisions are the same fools who are deficit spending us into BANKRUPTCY, the answer is simply NO MORE.
Further, the United States is essentially INSOLVENT RIGHT NOW. Consider what would happen if we suddenly removed the Federal Reserve and all their activities? We couldn't pay the interest on the national debt without ELIMINATING SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS and perhaps all defense spending.
That sort of explains why the feds (politicians, Congress in toto) "push down" programs to states and local governments with minimal "federal financial participation" and the local governments refer to this as unfunded mandates. Cause as it hits the fan, perhaps gradually but with increasing speed, the feds will HAVE TO remove federal financing from many programs. Yet they seem blind and keep spending on "defense" (actually foreign "aid" to every rat hole in the world) that we CANNOT AFFORD. We can afford to protect our borders so LET'S START HERE. It is CHEAPER TO DEPORT one that to pay for his spouse, parents, kids for their housing, food, medical care (emergency and routine), K-12, college tuition....... And it's gonna be a LOT CHEAPER to keep our soldiers employed until they can find other careers, keep them employed locating and expelling 13 million illegals in non-agricultural jobs, stealing from Americans. If we concentrate on the job stealers (and expeling family as located) we get the most effective and immediate results.
Kool-aid Coolican does not mention a lot of things.
Without tons of taxpayer money in the form of direct cash, none of these entities would be making any profit without. As oppose to energy sources that really are just getting the normal tax deductions that all businesses get.
Solar is not a 24/7 reliable source of enerty so one has to a duplicate reliable source system like coal based or natural base system to be on stand-by to make up for the loss of power from solar.
That is duplication adds a ton of cost of the energy system.
Solar is expensive for many reason. One is that requires a ton of land. Second is the most solar plants are far from the grid power lines. So new lines have to laid which means even more land has to purcahsed and the towers and cables are not cheap either.
The other reason why solar is expensive is that it can't be run a near capacity 24/7 like coal or natural gas. So the capital cost of solar has to spread over few sellable watts which drive up cost too.
Obama plan is to have solar provide no more than 10 to 12 percent of the energy needs 40 years form now which should be a giant wake up call to people like Kool-aid Coolican.
Spain was the leader in the charge into become number one in solar starting a decade ago.
Now it is one big mess over there. There energy is in total chaos. The government is near bankruptcy so the cash gives out have run out drive and some solar sites shut down because of it. Since they depressed coal and natural gas new generation they are having to import energy from other countries. Solar never produce anywhere near the hyped up number of jobs. It is a mess. They are starting to whack the cost of solar on the heads of the consumers like households.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12519381...
http://www.deneenborelli.com/todays-news...
http://www.deneenborelli.com/todays-news...
How much taxpayer money is going to the rebates and to cover the true cost of the solar panels and to cover the cost of the insulation?
GMAG! I haven't heard that pretty little song in decades. What a bittersweet reminder of a wonderful, brief period of heightened consciousness in a turbulent world. Maybe we should trade in those ubiquitous american flag lapel pins for some old-fashioned love beads. This old hippy thinks it could only be an improvement.
AMEN, truthiness!
MUSE...
Musicians United for Safe Energy.
Man, do I miss the 'brotherhood' that both entertained us and brought us together.
Peace!
3/23/12 News Report "White House Was All Hands on Deck as Solyndra Collapse Neared":
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire...