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So another Obama "Green" job taxpayer funded company goes BK. A123 battery?

Manufacturer for Fisker & Chevy Volt. So just how many of these dicey ventures did Obama invest in and LOSE?
The companies cited were: (Money listed is how much was offered, and does not include other state, local or federal tax credits and subsidies. Asterisk notes that the company has filed for bankruptcy)

Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
Solyndra ($535 million)*
Beacon Power ($69 million)*
AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
SunPower ($1.5 billion)
First Solar ($1.46 billion)
Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
Amonix ($5.9 million)
National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
Abound Solar ($374 million)*
A123 Systems ($279 million)*
Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
Johnson Controls ($299 million)
Schneider Electric ($86 million)
Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
ECOtality ($126.2 million)
Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
Range Fuels ($80 million)*
Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
UniSolar ($100 million)*
Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
GreenVolts ($500,000)
Vestas ($50 million)
LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
Navistar ($10 million)
Satcon ($3 million)*
The total? More than $10 billion.

Previously, it was reported A123, the maker of electric car batteries, sought bankruptcy to allow “the company to provide for an orderly sale of the automotive business assets and and all other assets and business units,” the company said.

About the same time, the Washington Times found a series of emails from solar power giant BrightSource Energy Inc. showing how the company “applied political pressure and used behind-the-scenes cajoling to win a $1.6 billion loan guarantee.”

And the IRS has argued regarding Solyndra that the bankruptcy plan “amounts to little more than an avenue for owners of an empty corporate shell to avoid paying taxes.”

“The undeniable conclusion is that tax benefits drive this plan,” attorneys for the IRS told the bankruptcy court.

Asked By: bluelotussmellslikebananas - 10/20/2012
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Anybody STILL think it is a function of the federal government to be a venture capitalist? With YOUR money???? Especially in industries where the technology has not gotten anywhere close to what it needs to be to be feasible? And especially with federal bureaucrats who know absolutely NOTHING about the field making the decisions?
Answered By: Robert - 10/20/2012
Additional Answers ()
I keep hearing vague rumors that these companies make political contributions. It's kinda like money laundering, in that taxpayer $ goes in, campaign contributions complete the circuit and then they go BK. But I can't prove it.

Pretty good scam.
Answered By: who is #1? - 10/21/2012
These are all great ideas and experiments. But it seems it would be better we invest in these on a private level and use tax dollars towards certainties.
Answered By: Baritt Obamney 2012 - 10/20/2012
Why will Obama not recognize these failures of his? Was this Bush's fault too?
Answered By: Smoochie - 10/20/2012
Obama should pay back American from his private bank account. Those are American hard earned tax money.
Answered By: MM C - 10/20/2012
Renewable Energy jobs are outpacing petroleum jobs.

There is much more success than failure in green energy jobs right now. One out of three restaurants that start up go out of business. Not so in renewable energy right now.

And ya just gotta wonder why Republicans continue down the path of destruction. It’s like “clean energy” is a dirty word or something. Wouldn’t they PREFER clean air and water than toxic air and water? What’s up with that? Who cares about ‘global warming.’ Let’s just take care of what we’ve got! I’d prefer that my grandchildren have a shot at some clean air and water, for cripe sake.

I know the Koch Brothers, one of our nation’s biggest polluters, own several Republican politicians, but it’s time for both sides to wake up and elect people who actually care about this country. Mitt Romney clearly doesn’t give two hoots about this country. Clearly.

Obama, 2012
Answered By: VoteVoteVote - 10/20/2012
The Bush recession caused by excessive Republican spending in Congress and Republican financial firms on Wall Street has caused many companies to declare bankruptcy. Oil keeps getting more expensive and will no longer be an affordable energy resource in the future, so we need to support firms attempting to create new resources.

Henry Ford had to give up on the first motor car company he started, but his second attempt created the Ford Motor Company that exists today. If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.
Answered By: Rikard - 10/20/2012
I just disagree with your premise for youre implying that just because these companies lost money, that they were bad investments. We could invest in more coal plants and oil pipelines and they would make money, but that doesn't solve the long term problem. We have to learn how to have a more symbiotic relationship with our environment, it's a matter of protecting the species. Additionally, having alternative methods in which to produce energy only make us less susceptible to the vulnerabilities of the deteriorating supplies of fossil fuels. That means we become stronger as a society when we can do things different ways.
Source(s):
I know youre talking about a bottom line and you're concerned about the economy, but we have to see the big picture. Please change your mind and support alternative energy at all cost.
Answered By: Seabiscuit - 10/20/2012
You may not agree with technology or energy investments, but here's an interesting fact. The president cannot spend money unless congress allocates it - so let's see where this money actually came from.
*
Government investment in energy, or in clean energy - is not some new "Obama" thing. It's been going on for decades. There's a chart on this page showing the return-on-investment from Government energy investments going back decades - to the 1960s:
*
http://grist.org/renewable-energy/2011-11-15-clean-energy-has-highest-return-rate-of-any-federal-program/
*
It shows that clean energy investments historically have the highest rate of return - meaning, profits on the loans government makes. Yes, that's right - loans are supposed to make a profit, and most of them do, even though some investments inevitably fail (most of them don't, the press reporting just makes it look this way). Again, this has been going on for decades.
*
The government program that makes loans for electric car projects is called the "Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program", and it was created as bipartisan legislation in 2008, during the Bush administration, and signed into law by GW Bush (NOT by Obama.) Here's a Wiki page explaining the program:
*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Technology_Vehicles_Manufacturing_Loan_Program
*
The press is of course focusing on the failures of this program, but on the whole, it is actually doing quite well. The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) says congress originally allocated $7.5 billion to cover loan costs of the program in 2008, but has recently reduced the estimate to $3.1 billion because the loans are doing better than expected. All those numbers are in the CBO report below:
*
http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/09-20-12-ElectricVehicles_0.pdf
*
The table on page 9 has a breakdown of all government costs for electric car investment (note that most of it was appropriated before Obama's election). See note C which talks about the reduced loan costs.
*
Since Republicans seem to hate every loan this program makes, the question has to be - why did they help create and vote for this loan program in the first place? Which electric car loans were Republicans planning on making?
Answered By: apeweek - 10/20/2012
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