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House Republican Says 'Three Is A Trend' in Another Stimulus-Funded Green Company Bankruptcy
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(CNSNews.com) – The third federally subsidized green energy company to declare bankruptcy seems to indicate a pattern, said Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
“One bankruptcy may be a fluke, two could be coincidence, but three is a trend,” Stearns said in a written statement. “Our investigation continues, and we are working to ensure taxpayers never are never again stuck paying hundreds of millions of dollars because of the administration’s risky bets.”
Ener1, which makes batteries for electric vehicles, announced Thursday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company had been awarded a $118.5 million from the Energy Department through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus. Read more here.
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Some 200 laid off at North Las Vegas Amonix solar plant
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 Just seven months after California-based solar power company Amonix Inc. opened its largest manufacturing plant, in North Las Vegas, the company’s contractor has laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce.
Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore manufacturing service provider that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant, laid off about 200 of its 300-plus employees Tuesday.
Amonix’s director of manufacturing operations, Eric Culberson, said the layoffs are part of “retooling” the factory as the company prepares to roll out its next-generation product.
“The new 8700 utility-scale CPV solar power system is a higher efficiency and lower cost,” Culberson said. “Once it is ready, we will ramp back up to meet the demands of the industry.”
Culberson said the job cuts are temporary and expects to begin hiring more people in the second half of the year to meet demand.
Read more here.
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Evergreen Energy Files for Bankruptcy, Cites Lack of Financing
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Evergreen Energy Inc. (EVEI), a developer of alternative fuel products, filed for bankruptcy protection, saying it was impossible to maintain operations with a lack of financing.
The company listed assets of about $240 million and debt of $25 million in Chapter 7 documents filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Chapter 7 proceedings let companies liquidate their assets while being protected from creditors.
Evergreen “remains unable to obtain additional financing and, given its current financial condition, there is substantial doubt that the company will be able to continue operations,” Evergreen said in a Jan. 13 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company was notified by its partner in a joint venture in China that both had to raise from $40 million to $50 million for design and construction of a so-called K-Fuel facility in China to meet an agreement signed by the Chinese parter with a coal mining company on Dec. 22, 2011, according the SEC filing.
Evergreen’s bankruptcy follows the failure of at least two U.S. government-backed renewable energy companies. Solar panel maker Solyndra LLC and energy storage company Beacon Power Corp (BCONQ). filed for bankruptcy last year after receiving government loan guarantees. Read more here. |
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Solyndra Collapse: Long Time Coming
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by William Yeatman on September 6, 2011
In late 2009, Solyndra, a California-based manufacturer of solar power rooftop components, received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy (DOE). It was the first such loan guarantee offered by the DOE with stimulus money. Last week, in a major blow to President Barack Obama’s green jobs agenda, the solar company became the latest stimulus-beneficiary to fail. It announced that it was entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
The announcement came as a surprise to many observers, such as Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills). Over the summer, Rep. Waxman, the architect of the stimulus program that benefited Solyndra, praised the company’s economic outlook. In an April letter, he boasted that “Solyndra has obtained additional equity investments from existing equity holders, an indication of investor confidence in the company’s prospects.”
California Governor Jerry Brown, too, must have been surprised by Solyndra’s sudden collapse. Two weeks ago, he invited Solyndra, Inc. to join him onstage to unveil a proposed package of tax subsidies for green energy companies. Solyndra’s presence was supposed to lend evidence to the “success” of past clean energy subsidies. Obviously, this is a poor omen for Governor Brown’s tax plan.
Surely the most shocked by Solyndra’s announcement was President Barack Obama. Until this week, he thought Solyndra was a great investment. So high was the President’s esteem for this solar biz that he took the time to visit its California facilities in 2010. He said that Solyndra manufactures “incredible, cutting edge solar panels.”
Unlike Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), California Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown, and the current Commander in Chief, some of us weren’t so surprised.Read more here. |
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Obama's Green Albatross
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by William Yeatman on November 15, 2011
Stimulus spending on environmentalist policy is a green albatross around the neck of President Barack Obama. Inspectors General are having a field day auditing stimulus-funded programs for so-called “green jobs,” and the media LOVES stories about wasted taxpayer money. What started as a sop to his environmentalist base, now threatens to become a slow-drip nightmare of negative press. The timing couldn’t be worse for the President. It takes time to disburse scores of billions of dollars, so we are only now starting to scrutinize stimulus spending. By November 2012, we’ll be able to account for most of the money, and unless the current trend changes radically, the Executive in Chief is going to look conspicuously incompetent.
Here’s the back-story: In early 2009, the Executive and Legislative branches of government had a popular mandate to defibrillate America’s moribund economy with a huge injection of taxpayer dollars. Instead of limiting this “stimulus” to state bailouts and infrastructure spending, the Obama administration (led by climate “czar” and former EPA administrator Carol Browner) and the Congressional majority (led by House Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills)) also sought to advance environmentalist policy. As a result, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a.k.a. the stimulus, included almost $70 billion in spending for green jobs and renewable energy infrastructure.
Every single link along the green energy supply chain was showered with subsidies. There was funding for green jobs training, funding for factories to make green products, and funding to incentivize demand for green goods and services. It was as like a green Gosplan!
Most of the money went to the Energy and Labor Departments. Budgets ballooned. To cite a typical example, in 2008, the Department of Energy’s weatherization program budget went from $450 million to $5 billion. Making matters worse, federal bureaucrats were told to spend the stimulus as fast as possible, in order to jumpstart job-creation. Exploding budgets and a mandate to rush money out the door—that’s a recipe for poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars. This is borne out by an increasing number of watchdog reports concluding that stimulus spending for green goals was wasteful. Here’s a laundry list of what they’ve found so far: Read more here. |
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Write a thank you note to Komen for withdrawing their funding to Planned Parenthood: news@komen.org
COMMENT: Although it took time, the fact that Susan G. Komen Foundation FINALLY disassociated itself from Planned Parenthood is a GREAT victory for pro-life Americans. (There is evidence that women who have abortions have an increased risk of getting breast cancer.)Unfortunately, this decision is proving to be a financial boon for Planned Parenthood. Nevertheless, it was the RIGHT thing for Komen to do.
Susan G. Komen Planned Parenthood funding decision sparks donation spike, strong reactions
Donors reacting to the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood contributed $650,000 in 24 hours, nearly enough to replace last year’s Komen funding, Planned Parenthood executives said Wednesday.
The organization had raised more than $400,000 from more than 6,000 online donors as of Wednesday afternoon, compared with the 100 to 200 donations it receives on an average day, said Tait Sye, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. He said donations were still coming in. Read more here.
New York Mayor Bloomberg in Planned Parenthood donation [$250,000]
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Planned Parenthood sues TN over cuts to STD program
Two affiliates say state yanked grants for political reasons
Abortion opponents are claiming another victory in the battle to defund Planned Parenthood by excluding it from state and federal funding for HIV and syphilis prevention programs.
But the nonprofit is fighting back.
Two Tennessee Planned Parenthood groups sued the state Thursday for denying the nonprofit more than $150,000 in grant money to participate in programs funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Planned Parenthood wants a federal judge to intervene and asked for an injunction against the state.
In the lawsuit, Planned Parenthood accuses the state of arbitrarily denying the funding in December and this month — without providing a reason — after approving it in August. Planned Parenthood also accuses the state of violating the organization’s First Amendment rights and patients’ rights by restricting access to non-abortion services based solely on an aversion to abortion. Read more here.
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