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Politics : The Solyndra Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wayners who wrote (388)	3/1/2012 11:02:17 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1400

Obama's Green Energy Failures Continue To Abound Green Energy: Another stimulus-backed solar panel maker, one the president touted in a weekly radio address, lays off most of its workers. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. President Obama is the Little Orphan Annie of presidents. He is always singing that the sun will come out tomorrow and shine on the American economy and his dreams of green energy. Yet companies such as Solyndra have proved the rule rather than the exception, producing more pink slips than green jobs as solar power and alternative energy continue to be eclipsed by advances in fossil fuel production. The latest casualty is Abound Solar Manufacturing. The Longmont, Colo.-based recipient of a $400 million federal loan guarantee to expand solar panel production said Tuesday it is laying off 280 workers and delaying a new factory in Indiana. That amounts to a 70% reduction in its workforce. The company says it's merely restructuring. "We are facing tough market conditions and falling prices," said Steve Abely, Abound's chief financial officer, in remarks eerily reminiscent of Solyndra's last will and financial testament. Lost in the tap-dancing verbiage is the simple fact that solar power is not financially competitive without subsidies like Abound and Solyndra have received. This is a far cry from the bright future painted by the president in his weekly radio address of July 3, 2010. Touting his push for a clean energy economy, Obama said Abound would "manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs" at plants in Indiana and Colorado. Apparently Abound was not helped by last July's $9.2 million Export-Import Bank loan to support exports of thin-film solar photovoltaic modules from Abound Solar to Punj Lloyd Solar Power Ltd., a company in India building a five-megawatt solar project on a 62.5-acre site near the village of Bap. In a January report, Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News counted at least 12 clean energy companies that were having trouble after collectively being approved for more than $6.5 billion in federal assistance. Five have filed for bankruptcy: the junk bond-rated Beacon, Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt, AES' subsidiary Eastern Energy and the infamous Solyndra. "Hindsight is always 20-20," Obama said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. "It went through the regular review process. And people felt like this (Solyndra) was a good bet." As this latest in a string of green energy flops shows, the president has quite a green energy gambling addiction. Fact is, the administration had warnings about Solyndra from private ratings agencies such as Price Waterhouse Coopers and from the Office of Management and Budget that the deal was "not ready for prime time." The administration also had warnings about other such companies, yet proceeded either out of ideological blindness or to reward campaign donors, such as George Kaiser, who were heavily invested in such firms. First Solar was the biggest S&P 500 loser in 2011, and its CEO was cut loose — even as taxpayers were forced to back a whopping $3 billion in company loans. SunPower landed a deal linked to a $1.2 billion loan guarantee last fall after a French oil company took it over. On its last financial statement, SunPower owed more than it was worth. Daniel Kish, senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research, said in a recent interview with Cybercast News Service that "without government subsidies or mandates, none of these energy sources exist; they just simply won't. ... These energy sources are not as efficient as the sources of energy that the marketplace has picked and the consumers have picked to run the country." Rendering a verdict of the president's failed industrial policy, consumers and voters will get to pick their own winners and losers in November.

To: Wayners who wrote (388)	3/2/2012 5:03:33 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1400

GM halts production of Volt By Keith Laing - 03/02/12 thehill.com General Motors has temporarily suspended production of its Volt electric car, the company announced Friday. GM, which is based in Detroit, announced to employees at one of its facilities that it was halting production of the beleaguered electric car for five weeks and temporarily laying off 1,300 employees. A GM spokesman told The Hill on Friday that production of the Volt would resume April 23. "We needed to maintain proper inventory and make sure that we continued to meet market demand," GM spokesman Chris Lee said in a telephone interview. Lee noted that sales of the Volt were higher in February than they were in January, and added that California recently decided to allow the electric car to qualify for High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes in the state. "We see positive trends, but we needed to make this market adjustment," he said. The Chevy Volt has come under criticism from Republicans in Congress because of reports of its batteries catching on fire during testing. President Obama gave the electric vehicle a vote of confidence in a speech to the United Auto Workers union this week, promising he would buy a Volt "five years from now, when I'm not president anymore." But Republicans have argued that the Volt was being pushed by the Obama administration for political reasons instead of consumer demand. “Is the commitment to the American public or is the commitment to clean energy, that we are going to get there any way we can?” Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) asked in a hearing in the House in January about the Volt's reported battery fires. “When the market is ready … it won’t have to be subsidized,” Kelly said. Chevy has argued the debate about the Volt has become too political. "We did not develop the Chevy Volt to be a political punching bag," General Motors CEO Daniel Akerson testified before Congress in the same January hearing. "We engineered the Volt to be a technological wonder." Chevy has sought to give a boost to the public image of the Volt, releasing a commercial in January tying the Volt to the effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil. "This isn’t just the car we wanted to build,” a narrator says in the commercial over footage of Volts being manufactured in Hamtramck, Mich. “This is the car America had to build.”

To: Wayners who wrote (388)	3/12/2012 12:07:45 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1400

Scientific advisor alleges administration intentionally falsified records By: Michael Dorstewitz BIZPAC Review March 8, 2012 bizpacreview.com From the earliest days of the Wild West, water rights have always been a bone of contention and, no doubt, the cause of more than one gunfight. It’s still an issue to this day. But instead of being a dispute between farmer and rancher or cattleman and sheepherder, it’s now a battle between people and fish. Two years ago, the Delta smelt, a tiny, minnow-like fish, caused a brouhaha. In an effort to save this fish (which has no commercial value whatsoever), water supplies to California’s Central Valley were severely limited. As a direct result, this fertile agricultural center was quickly turning into a dust bowl and unemployment soared to almost 40 percent. Eventually, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed suit against the federal government on behalf of the farmers and received a favorable ruling on Dec. 14, 2010, from the trial court. Since then, the matter has been winding its way through the appellate courts. While the San Joaquin Valley farmers continue to await their fate in court, a new water rights controversy has been brewing. This time, it involves the Chinook salmon and the Klamath River in Northern California. Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar wants to destroy the river’s three dams, which provide flood control, a reliable source of fresh irrigation water for regional farmers and clean hydroelectric power. Last summer, National Geographic ran a story when four dams were being considered for demolition. It concluded that it might not be the “silver bullet” for salmon restoration that the government envisioned and questioned the wisdom of proceeding with the project given the benefits the dams provide the area and the $1 billion price tag attached to their destruction. Late last month, a whistleblower, George Mason University professor Paul H. Houser, removed all uncertainty over National Geographic' questions. Houser served as scientific advisor to the Bureau of Reclamation, and as such, was closely involved in the Klamath River project. He now alleges that data used to support the dams’ removal was intentionally falsified. "In particular, he says that, under orders from Ken Salazar, the department produced a ‘summary’ report that ‘intentionally distorts and generally presents a biased view of the Klamath River dam removal benefits," said a report posted in the blog, The City Square. This isn’t the first time this administration has plunged blindly ahead while ignoring danger signs along the way. The Bush administration recommended rejecting Solyndra’s request for federal loan guarantees. The Obama administration nonetheless loaned the company $535 million to great fanfare, only to watch it fall into bankruptcy protection later. It’s done similar acts time and again, primarily in its pursuit of its green energy policy. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Agency has made it clear in recent congressional hearings that it never considers its rulings’ impact on business. Back in the stone age of information sciences, before the advent of online, real-time data and when computers filled large, climate-controlled rooms, IBM was the undisputed king of the hill. Scattered here and there in those sterile, machine-filled rooms were IBM signs that advised, “THINK.” It wasn’t long before some clever wit scribbled the words, “or thwim,” at the bottom of the signs. When any presidential administration bases its decisions on what it wants while ignoring reality, it’s not thinking -- it’s sinking.

To: Wayners who wrote (388)	3/20/2012 11:21:37 PM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1400

Chu: I would give myself an ‘A’ for energy prices The Daily Caller ^ \| 03/20/2012 \| Mathew Boyle Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a House panel Tuesday that he’d give himself top marks when asked to grade his policies’ effects on energy prices. Chu would give himself the top grade on gas prices despite that fact that the average price for a gallon of gas just hit $3.87 – the highest ever recorded in the month of March, according to ABC News.

To: Wayners who wrote (388)	3/27/2012 9:42:41 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1400

Maker of Electric Vans Shuts -- Latest Industry Victim, Azure Dynamics, a Ford Partner, Looks for a Buyer BY MIKE RAMSEY March 27, 2012 online.wsj.com Azure Dynamics Corp., a producer of electric delivery vans and a partner of Ford Motor Co., said on Tuesday that it is in talks with customers and suppliers to resume production following a bankruptcy reorganization filing in Canada. The company, which was founded in British Columbia but makes its headquarters in Oak Park, Mich., has halted production of electrified Ford Transit Connect vans. Ford markets the vans through some North American and European dealers. The reorganization is the latest sign of trouble among electric-vehicle makers. Sales of electric cars such as Nissan Motors Co.'s Leaf have fallen short of expectations, ...

To: Wayners who wrote (388)	4/2/2012 6:15:01 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1400

Another Gov’t-Backed Clean Energy Co. Touted by Obama Admin Goes Bankrupt April 2, 2012 by Becket Adams theblaze.com A California solar energy company that was unable to meet a deadline for an Energy Department loan guarantee last year has sought bankruptcy protection in Delaware. “Solar Trust of America LLC…holds the development rights for the world’s largest solar power project,” Reuters reports, “which last April won $2.1 billion of conditional loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy. It is unclear how the bankruptcy will affect that project [emphasis added].” Solar Trust of America’s Chapter 11 filing on Monday listed assets between $1 million and $10 million, and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million. “We have been working with Solar Trust of America for a couple of years in getting this project going,” David Lane, Blythe’s city manager, said in an interview with Reuters. ”Although the project is not in the city limits, we are the only city within 100 miles. My sense is that with the large investment in what was to have been the world’s largest solar power plant, someone somewhere will buy it and build it.” The company said it “ran short of liquidity” after Solar Millennium AG, which holds a 70 percent stake, sought court protection in December, according to Reuters. “Solar Millennium then tried to sell that stake to solarhybrid AG, but that transaction collapsed when solarhybrid also sought court protection in Germany,” the report adds. The filing comes amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Solyndra, a solar firm that received a half-billion dollar federal loan and was touted by the Obama administration before declaring bankruptcy last year. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and California Gov. Jerry Brown were on hand last June when Solar Trust broke ground on a 1,000-megawatt project in California. “This groundbreaking today needs to be viewed in the context of the energy blueprint for the United States of America, which president Obama has been working at,” Salazar said in 2011. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar & California’s Governor Jerry Brown “We believe we can secure the energy future of the United States of America by doing the right things with domestic development of oil and gas both onshore and offshore in the right places and in the right way. But we also believe that the energy future of the United States is based on alternative energy, and there is no better example than what we are doing here in California,” he added.