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The Solyndra Green Recovery That Wasn’t

No One Messes With Joe!

By: Aaron Gardner (Diary)  |  September 9th, 2011 at 03:15 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

With news this past week of Solyndra’s bankruptcy, firing of 1,100 employees and federal agents now raiding the homes of the executives, I thought it would be instructive for all to go back to where this began. Two years ago on September 4th of 2009, Vice President Biden was live via satellite to praise a little known solar company that was going to help America and the Obama administration win the future.

Part of our plan — part of our plan is to make sure that as we create these jobs, we creat jobs of the future, like the ones you’re creating, jobs you can raise a family on, green jobs, jobs that will serve as a foundation for a stronger American economy, which is why it’s sp important we — we — we invest in Solyndra and invest in what Solyndra is doing, not just to get us through today, but to power our way to a much brighter tomorrow.

…

And I’m really happy, along with the secretary, to announce today that we’ve closed a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, more than a half a billion dollars. This is the first in what the secretary’s going to be announcing the Department of Energy will be making available for more than $30 billion in loan guarantees the recovery act is providing and will provide to American companies that are leading the way to a new clean energy future.

Back in the salad days of the Obama administration, when hobbits were still only fantasy and the Democrats controlled all the rings of powers, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act glided through Congress and was signed by a gleeful President. All were confident that they now had the power and the plan to turn the economy around and fix the environment in the process.

Green Jobs were here to stay. Our very salvation depended on it.

The loan to Solyndra will allow you to build a new manufacturing facility and with it almost immediately generate 3,000 new well-paying construction jobs. And once your facility opens, there will be about 1,000 permanent new jobs here at Solyndra and in the surrounding business community, and hundreds more to install your growing output of solar panels throughout the country.

It’s important. [ed note: THIS IS A BIG EFFING DEAL]

It’s important because these jobs are going to be permanent jobs. These are the jobs of the future. These are the green jobs. These are jobs that won’t be exported. These are the jobs that are going to define the 21st century and the jobs — going to allow America to compete and to lead like we did in the 20th century.

Permanent Green Jobs. Put it in the bank people, this will work!

And out there in Solyndra, you guys have figured it out; you’ve figured out to harness the sun’s power for a better, more efficient, more prosperous future for all of America.

And in the process, you’re creating more jobs.

Unfortunately, all those jobs are now gone. And the only people who prospered are now being investigated by the same people who propped them up in the first place. This is an especially disturbing turn of events considering it has been reported that the Dept. of Energy was sitting in on board meetings when Solyndra was going through their loan restructuring.

I guess when Obama said that no one messes with Joe, he didn’t have Solyndra in mind.

Aaron B. Gardner

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COMMENTS

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  • powertothepeople

    hence I do not and have not taken any jobs in economics. I never took a job in economics because I knew I would be a dismal failure. Obama and his lap dog Biden did the opposite. They knew nothing about honesty, morality, leadership, governing, or the American way, yet they still took the job as the free world leaders. They were and are dismal failures but we get to pay the price.

    This failure does not surprise me and I bet it does not surprise them either. The only thing that makes them mad about this whole crapstorm is that it happened before the 2012 election. Now they have to deal with their failure and deceit rather than use its “success” as a slideshow for the re-election effort.

  • Common_Cents

    but rather utopian fantasy and crony taxpayer rippers for campaign favors.

  • http://www.usdebateboard.com usdebateboard

    out of conscience or otherwise to work there, being northern California, and all.

    What bureaucracy is going to give 1300 people their wrecked lives back? Is Hoffa, Trumka, or Biden going to rally them?

  • realskinny

    Does it occur to anyone why the FBI has seized all the Solyndra documents?

    This is Holder’s thug squad, after all. Any evidence of untoward contact between Solyndra executives and the Administration is now in the hands of said Administration. Not saying there was anything crooked going on but there were 22 WH visits by Solyndra Execs BEFORE they got more than $1/2 billion
    in taxpayer funds. Since any paperwork is now in the hands of Eric Holder, there is little chance Congressional investigators will come up with anything.

  • acat

    who just brought the FBI along for muscle.

    I’m not worried about Holder’s brute squad getting in the way. This is public enough Congresscritters know to watch for a repeat of Walpin.

    Mew

  • Tbone

    In an honest society, the Republicans in Congress would be going after all the crooks in this deal right up to Obama. They all should be indicted.

  • lastgopinillinois

    from congressional republicans about this debaucle on C-span. Rush Limbaugh is the only one with “air-time” who has hammered the endeavor.
    Republicans should STAND UP in front of the American people and tell them the truth about this and how 0bama’s policies are wasting THIER money.
    Some die-hard libs wouldnt budge if the world was comming to an end, but I would think most people who had been 0bama supporters might start having second thoughts.

  • Allan_Yackey

    Perhaps the real name of the company is Solyant Green?

  • http://nixonrepublic.wordpress.com andrewhclark

    Even if we give Obama the total benefit of the doubt, and assume that nothing unethical happened here (as GatewayPundit is already blogging on), this is still a massive policy failure. Obama is doing a disservice to the American people by fooling us into believing that a “green jobs agenda” is going to be a panacea for our economic recovery.

    Next time Obama wants to invest in clean technology, thats one thing. But I don’t want the word “jobs” within 20 feet of it. Check out my take on my blog, www.60reasons.com. http://60reasons.com/2011/09/09/reason-2-obamas-green-jobs-agenda-is-ineffective/

  • earlgrey

    Creepy.

  • johnt

    & nobody notices and if they do they don’t care. It didn’t take long to blow through those taxpayers bucks, makes one wonder. Does the government care enough to go through the balance sheets and P & L’s for a look see?
    This will not cause so much as a twitch, a raised eyebrow, a two second passing thought to occur to the unbalanced and degenerate fools who pushed this. Already Obama, Biden, the others who applauded this have had it vanish from their minds. A blip and it’s gone. In Biden’s case, not even a blip.
    These guys are certainly good at destruction and waste. And the Left wants more.

  • http://nerds4cain.com Brookhaven

    nt

  • http://nerds4cain.com Brookhaven

    The comment was supposed to be a joke, but the more I think about it, the more true it is.

    The money wasted here came from taxpayers. That money represents more than just dollars and cents–it represents their lives.

    It’s the hours of hard work the taxpayers put in to earn that money (real time out of their lives they will never get back) that is gone forever.

    It’s the things the taxpayers will never be able to do with their money (from a family vacation, to paying for college tuition, to paying off their mortgage)–these are real parts of their lives that were taken away from them.

    Soylent Green (in the movie) was a food that was made from human beings. Everyone thought it was a benefit, till they found out the real cost of creating it. Isn’t the same true here?

    Solyndra was touted as beneficial, but like Soylent Green, it is actually destructive.

    Solyndra Green is Taxpayers!

  • http://nerds4cain.com Brookhaven

    Maybe not on this specific project, but funnelling money to supporters/special-interest-groups is standard practice for politicians in BOTH parties.

    It’s called a “gentleman’s agreement”, you don’t shine the light on my backdoor deals, and I won’t shine the light on yours.

  • harlan

    …of taxpayer money to this enterprise was a criminal action by this administration.

    Expect nothing to be done about it.

  • carolina

    Maybe the FBI is doing ‘clean up’ of the record?
    btw – their thin film technology was obsolete before the factory was even built. Typical result when the govt picks “winner and losers” = we tax payers get hosed.

  • pantera

    Solyndra Green is people…..
    Solyndra Green is people…..

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    Well, in a financial sense, they were a bunch of cannibals.

  • Spartan4Life

    From the New York Times, no less:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/us/10iht-currents10.html?_r=1&src=tp&smid=fb-share

    Ms. Palin got it exactly right in her speech in Iowa. At the end of the day isn’t this the stuff(Solyndra) that pisses us off whether it is Dem establishment politicians or GOP establishment politicians? They’re is not much difference. Big Government, Big Labor, Big Environmentalism, Crony Capitalists, Big Lobbyists can all go to hell as far as I am concerned. What we need is not a GOP revolution but a populist revolution.

    I have some friends and relatives that come from the MSNBC wing of the left and they read this article with great interest. They are starting to figure out that Obama is not the man of the people he sold himself as. He is just another puppet politician doing the bidding of his union bosses.

    BTW, I think Rick Perry gets this, too.

  • carolina

    Palin is about the only national politician who can say this. She learned the ground rules of this game as Gov of Alaska – just like Walker learned exactly what the problem was with govt employee unions when he was a city manager. Walker put that hands-on knowledge to work for WI when he became the Gov.
    Palin can bring her hands-on knowledge of crony capitalism to the public debate. I hope she is VERY successful (though the fight is even more dangerous than the battle with the govt unions).

  • carolina

    Palin is about the only national politician who can say this. She learned the ground rules of this game as Gov of Alaska – just like Walker learned exactly what the problem was with govt employee unions when he was a city manager. Walker put that hands-on knowledge to work for WI when he became the Gov.
    Palin can bring her hands-on knowledge of crony capitalism to the public debate. I hope she is VERY successful (though the fight is even more dangerous than the battle with the govt unions).

  • FlyingTigress

    I’d almost rather wait to have the “photons hit the fan” [so to speak] closer to nov 2012 – as with “Fast and Furious”.

    “Broadsides” has it as advantages as a tactic. Hit ‘em with as many scandals as possible so that it rings their freaking bell – and they can’t (a) have time to recover from each new revelation and (b) can’t claim this an isolated problem.

    WRT Joe’s comments… Unless he was singing “It’s a Great, Big Beautiful Tomorrow shining at the end of ev’ry day”, Everyone should have been REALLY skeptical.

    (Obscure reference to audio-animatronics last seen at DisneyWorld)

  • dmacleo

    seems the IG office still has ethics. so far at least.

  • dave72

    Don’t worry, Gov. Moonbeam will find spots for all of them in his bloated CA bureaucracy.

  • powertothepeople

    was simply making the point that I do not take jobs I know nothing about, Obama and Biden chose to do the opposite. Neither had a clue on how to run a country hence their pathetic effort has been a dismal failure which has cost the average citizen dearly.

  • Next93

    I don’t trust the IG office of any government agency, and here’s why:

    When I worked at JSC twenty years ago, the IG showed up at my orientation class to proudly proclaim that his dept had recovered some $300,000 worth of improper spending the year before. I raised my hand and asked how big his department was, and was informed that they had 10 lawyers plus support staff, plus an auditing company on contract. That works out to $30,000 woth of “savings” per lawyer. Having spent the first decade of my career in the private sector, I immediately did a cost/benefit ratio in my head, and suddenly felt nauseaous. I never found out what a government lawyer made back then, but I’d be willing to bet that it’s not south of $30,000 a year. And that’s before you throw in support, office space, travel expenses, etc. There was someting very, VERY wrong with the agency if this is what they thought of as a success story.

    By the time I quit a year later, I’d come to a sad realization; like most of the work done by civil servants at that center, the purpose of the IG’s office was to make sure that if the you-know-what hit the fan, the top managers and the contractors would have some low-level G-S trodlodyte to pin the blame on.

    Every form I signed was intended to hold harmless the agency and the policy-makers (including the contractor companies who, in many cases, were the ones actually calling the shots). It’s one of the reasons I left; I hadn’t spend half of my life studying engineering just so I could be the guy that Mike Wallace and his crew could ambush in the parking lot if something went wrong.

    And it was the IG’s job to make sure those forms were signed. They had no idea what kind of work was being done, how much it should cost, or whether it needed to be spent. They just checked to see that the paperwork was done right. If it wasn’t, they sent in the lawyers to try to get payments reversed, and that’s how they “recovered” $300,000 (out of several billions in budge) in a year.

    In the final analysis, the IG is simply a very professional-looking bandage covering a gangrenous wound.

  • Next93

    I’m not much of a materials guy, but I seem to remember “thin film” being talked up as the Next Big Thing back in the 80′s. I was just out of college and thinking that maybe I should try to get a jump on that technology.

    Maybe these guys had some way to wring some extra efficiency out of it, but anyone who thinks thin film is leading edge is probably spending his weekends trying to get a Personal Best on Frogger.

  • http://www.usdebateboard.com usdebateboard

    rather than campaign against his extraconstitional and criminal enterprises.

  • acat

    One may say “where there’s smoke…”

    ABC News reports the Feds have “visited” homes of the Solyndra CEO and possibly other execs …

    This story’s got legs.

    Mew

  • renl57

    In keeping with the Obama Administration’s game of finding excuses for their failures, Solyndra and the Energy Department have settled on the same excuse: Chinese manufacturing has lowered the cost of solar panels to the point that Solyndra couldn’t compete.

    Let’s just leave aside the absurdity of their claim that China’s lowering the price of solar panels for consumers is a bad thing. (I thought the point of investing in solar technology was to make it cheaper so it could compete with fossil fuels?)

    The claim is just false. Solyndra–with the Obama Administration’s acquiescence–made a bad investment, that’s all. They bet heavily on state-of-the-art non-silicon solar panels, back when the price of silicon was higher. But the price of silicon dropped, and Solyndra lost its competitive advantage.

    In my own engineering career, I’ve noticed how government technocrats can be seduced by the latest whiz-bang technology, especially when it’s portrayed in the coolest viewgraphs that Microsoft PowerPoint is capable of making. Scalability, economies of scale, consumer appeal, all that grungy stuff, is foreign to them.

    I’m sure our Energy Secretary, Chu, being a physicist, fell in love with Solyndra precisely because it was pushing the state of the art in science and technology.