Friday, October 19, 2012

Obama Failures Largely Ignored by the Press...

President Obama’s Taxpayer-Backed 
Green Energy Failures

It is no secret that President Obama’s and green-energy supporters’ (from both parties) foray into venture capitalism has not gone well. But the extent of its failure has been largely ignored by the press. Sure, single instances garner attention as they happen, but they ignore past failures in order to make it seem like a rare case.

The truth is that the problem is widespread. The government’s picking winners and losers in the energy market has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and the rate of failure, cronyism, and corruption at the companies receiving the subsidies is substantial. The fact that some companies are not under financial duress does not make the policy a success. It simply means that our taxpayer dollars subsidized companies that would’ve found the financial support in the private market.

So far, 36 companies that were offered federal support from taxpayers are faltering — either having gone bankrupt or laying off workers or heading for bankruptcy. This list includes only those companies that received federal money from the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy and other agencies. The amount of money indicated does not reflect how much was actually received or spent but how much was offered. The amount also does not include other state, local, and federal tax credits and subsidies, which push the amount of money these companies have received from taxpayers even higher.

The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:
  1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
  2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
  3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
  4. Beacon Power ($69 million)*
  5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
  6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
  7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
  8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
  9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
  10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
  11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
  12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
  13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
  14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
  15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
  16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
  17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
  18. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
  19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
  20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
  21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
  22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
  23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
  24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
  25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
  26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
  27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
  28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
  29. UniSolar ($100 million)*
  30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
  31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
  32. Vestas ($50 million)
  33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
  34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
  35. Navistar ($10 million)
  36. Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Read Full Article Here..
For those interested, on the article page, all those companies have links to pertaining information... 

Link found over at ATrainWreckinMaxwell

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Solar panels available to consumers rarely transform more than 15% of light into electricity. Solar panaels are made from toxic chemicals as well.

Wind Turbines are made of plastics and composites. Both require oil to manufacture. The steel support structure obviously requires steel. Steel is refined by reducing (the opposite of oxidation) iron ore with coke (a form of coal that has been purged of impurities) in a blast furnace.

Tidal Power and Hydro-electric power require the construction of dikes and dams. The concrete made for them is bound together by portland cement, which is made in a rotary kiln fired by coal dust. The construction of these massive structures disrupts wildlife.

Lithium ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles do not have an infinite shelf life. The lithium is produced by electrolysis which requires large amounts of electricity which usually comes from a coal-fired power plant.

The ethanol for fuel comes from corn. 30% of all corn produced in the US goes to ethanol production. The result is higher food prices due to artificial scarcity. Food prices were a direct trigger for the Arab Spring that Obama supports.

In short "Green" technology is dirty, produces LESS, and is more expensive. Anyone who thinks humanity can live in a without oil, steel, plastics, electricity and still maintain current population levels is a moron (an understatement I know).

MissK said...

Thank you for your comment Son_of_Liberty, very insightful...

hiswiserangel said...

I like hanging out with the smart kids...