Solyndra gets a $528,000,000 loans and defaults. The fiasco is now subject to an FBI investigation. 
From recent article on the investigation:
Senior Obama Administration officials decided to restructure the government’s half-billion-dollar loan to the California solar energy firm Solyndra even after government analysts had concluded it would cost taxpayers far less to allow the company to fail, according to a newly released report on the investigation into the Solyndra matter by House Republicans.
“DOE is likely to be very sensitive about optics if it should default,” one analyst wrote in an email.
“A meltdown that would likely be very embarrassing for DOE and the Administration,” wrote another.
The cost to the administration’s reputation was more important than the cost to the tax payer.
The previous experience providing no education; SolarReserve gets a government guaranteed $737,000,000 loan.
From an editorial article on the loan:
Coincidentally, the project which is risking $737 million to power 43K homes, is located in the Majority Leader’s home state of Nevada. It turns out that none other than Nancy Pelosi’s Brother-in-Law, Ronald Pelosi was the number two man at an energy fund PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC which has invested $100 million in SolarReserve based in Santa Monica, California.
Comments from Florida U.S. Representative Cliff Stearns (R):
“The administration’s flagship project Solyndra is bankrupt and being investigated by the FBI, the promised jobs never materialized, and now the Department of Energy is preparing to rush out nearly $5 billion in loans in the final 48 hours before stimulus funds expire — that’s nearly $105 million every hour that must be finalized until the deadline.”
A123 is getting $450,000,000. (Forbe’s article on A123.) They make “green tech” batteries. China’s automaker Wangxiang will be aquiring an 80% stake in the cash hemorhaging company, “A123 lost nearly $83 million in the second quarter of 2012, on top of a whopping $125 million loss in the first quarter. Losses in 2011 approached $258 million, with cumulative losses since 2007 totaling more than $815 million.”
Apparently some of A123′s losses have resulted from recalls of their batteries to companies like Fisker Automotive. A123 is a share holder in Fisker Automotive, a California electric car maker that received $529,000,000 to build cars… in Finland.
President Obama defended these “investments” in green energy based on the investment China is making in the industry – do recall that US taxpayers are subsiding that Chinese investment to the tune of 80% of $450 million in the case of A123. The President just might ought to look at the horrors investing in green tech has visited on the Spanish economy. The President may want to look at the fact that these investments resulted in failures even with government subsidies propping them up. It isn’t just that the spending is “too damn high” but that its “too damn stupid.”
