Obama’s Department of Energy loaned out billions in Green energy loans and grants. Most of it was laundered to friends or allies. Hunter Biden’s Burisma got some, but so did a proposed solar farm in Harry Reid’s home state of Nevada. Toponah cost taxpayers 737 Million for what amounts to a Green Energy Stonehenge.
Related: Can We Please Get the Feds Out of the Solar Venture Capital Business?
It has ten thousand mirrors in a circle that’s two miles wide. A dead and useless monument to poor investment and bad planning. But when its someone else’s money, eh?
The Company that built and ran the facility, when it runs,
[is] mired in litigation and accusations of mismanagement at Crescent Dunes, where taxpayers remain on the hook for $737 million in loan guarantees. Late last year, Crescent Dunes lost its only customer, NV Energy Inc., which cited the plant’s lack of reliability.
You’ll be happy to know, maybe happy is not the correct word, that the Trump Department of energy has clawed back 200 million from that particular bucket. A far better return than under the Obama Administration, which, as I noted here, “likes to play the solar ponies, but he couldn’t pick a winner if your life depended on it. But why should he care? It’s not his money.”
Toponah, 737 million.
Ivanpah, 1.6 billion never to meet expectations.
Solyndra, 500 million.
Abengoa (Spain) 2.7 Billion
Wait, there’s more.
- Beacon Power Corp: Received $43 million in federal loan guaranteed in 2009 and also received $29 million in PA grants – Bankrupt in October 2011
- Ener1 (parent company of EnerDel): Received $118.5 million in federal loan guarantees — Bankrupt in January 2012 – has since exited bankruptcy.
- Evergreen Solar: Received $58 million in MA loan guarantees (an undisclosed portion sourced from federal ARRA block grant) — Bankrupt in August 2011 with $485.6 million in debt
- Solyndra: Received $535 million in federal loan guarantees in 2009 and $25.1 million in CA tax credit — Bankrupt in August 2011
- SpectraWatt: Received $500,000 in federal loan guarantees in 2009 — Bankrupt in August 2011
- Babcock and Brown: Received $178 million in federal grants in December 2009 (4 months after it went bust) – Bankrupt in early 2009
- Mountain Plaza Inc.: Received $424,000 in federal grants through TN Department of Transportation in 2009 — Bankrupt in 2003 and again in June 2010
- Solar Trust of America (parent company: Solar Millennium): Received $2.1 billion loan guarantee in April 2011 – Bankrupt in April 2012
Other Subsidized Green Energy Companies in decline:
- A123: Received $300 million in federal grants and $135 million in MI grants
- Amonix, Inc.: Received $5.9 million in federal tax credits in 2009
- First Solar: Received $3 billion in federal loan guarantees — Biggest S&P loser in 2011, CEO fired
- Fisker Automotive: $529 million in federal loan guarantees (Finland)
- Johnson Controls: Received $299 million in federal grants in 2009
- Nevada Geothermal: Received $98.5 million in federal loan guarantees in 2009 — Defaulting on long-term debt obligations, 85% drop in stock value
- Sun Power: Received $1.2 billion in federal loan guarantees — Debt exceeds assets; French oil company took over last fall.
- Abound Solar: Received $400 million in federal loans in 2012
- BrightSource Energy: $1.6 billion federal loan approved in April 2012
None of this accounts for the hundreds of millions in tax credits, write-offs, and other incentives on commercial and residential solar and electric-powered vehicles.
Obama cronies pocketed small fortunes despite failures because of rules set up by the Administration or as part of the loans or grants. In other words, if you forgot, taxpayers got screwed, but Obama donors or investors got rich.
Under Trump, this crazy train got derailed for which the Left accuses him of putting the planet and our future at risk. The only danger is that opportunistic corporate cronies might wear themselves out looking for another trough from which to feed.
