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if we could just stop playing gotcha for a second, we might realize that federal loan programs — especially loans for innovative energy technologies — virtually require the government to take risks the private sector won’t take. Indeed, risk-taking is what these programs are all about. Sometimes, the risks pay off. Other times, they don’t. It’s not a taxpayer ripoff if you don’t bat 1.000; on the contrary, a zero failure rate likely means that the program is too risk-averse. Thus, the real question the Solyndra case poses is this: Are the potential successes significant enough to negate the inevitable failures?
I have a hard time answering “no.” Most electricity today is generated by coal-fired power plants, operated by monopoly, state-regulated utilities. Because they’ve been around so long, and because coal is cheap, these plants have built-in cost advantages that no new technology can overcome without help. The federal guarantees help lower the cost of capital for technologies like solar; they help spur innovation; and they help encourage private investment. These are all worthy goals.
To say “no” is also to cede the solar panel industry to China, which last year alone provided some $30 billon in subsidies for its solar industry. Over all, the American solar industry is a big success story; it now employs more people than either steel or coal, and it’s a net exporter.
But solar panel manufacturing — a potential source of middle-class jobs, and an important reason the White House was so high on Solyndra, which made its panels in Fremont, Calif. — is another story. Not so long ago, China made 6 percent of the world’s solar panels. Now it makes 54 percent, and leads the world in solar panel manufacturing. Needless to say, the U.S. share of the market has shrunk. The only way America can manufacture competitive solar panels is to come up with innovative technologies that the Chinese can’t replicate. Like, for instance, Solyndra’s.
At the hearing on Friday, several of the Republican congressmen boasted that, in passing the continuing resolution to keep the government running the day before, they had succeeded in slashing the program that had made the loan to Solyndra. It’s true: of the $4 billion that remained in the program, $1.5 billion was cut.
But the real winner isn’t the American taxpayer or even the House Republicans. It’s the Chinese solar industry.
This is not without precedent. IIRC the Federal Government provided several wall street companies huge amounts of land and resources if they would build a transcontinental railroad. Besides is this green company a financial or technical failure. If financial it was probably designed to fail from the start so the executives could rob us blind. Besides this was started under the previous administration was it not? What I do not understand is why the executives have not been forced to return their salaries and bonuses because they failed? IMHO they should pay the government back every dime they took as well as all the assetts.
Solyndra cost us millions. What about the F-35 project that has cost us billions with no sign of success, completion or end?
This is not without precedent. IIRC the Federal Government provided several wall street companies huge amounts of land and resources if they would build a transcontinental railroad. Besides is this green company a financial or technical failure. If financial it was probably designed to fail from the start so the executives could rob us blind. Besides this was started under the previous administration was it not? What I do not understand is why the executives have not been forced to return their salaries and bonuses because they failed? IMHO they should pay the government back every dime they took as well as all the assetts.
Solyndra cost us millions. What about the F-35 project that has cost us billions with no sign of success, completion or end?
Solyndra executives will go to jail right after Lehman Brothers executives go to jail.
The end result is that Solyndra's only purpose is to make political hay. It's not an indictment of government helping fledgling industries, as you pointed out. The cost to taxpayers of Solyndra was not even a rounding error compared to the cost of the Iraq debacle.
The only thing that I think is valuable learning from Solyndra, which undoubtedly the GOP will not learn, is that China is using unfair practices to kill our domestic industries. Solyndra would have been profitable and employ Americans had the proper trade laws been in place.
Ironically, Obama was advised by top advisors to NOT visit the Solyndra plant because auditors had already identified a financial crises in the making. He was advised to not associate with the coming failure. However, Obama's advisors were over-ruled by Valerie Jarrett, who insisted that Obama show his face. Valerie Jarrett is widely known in DC circles to be outside of her range and wholly unqualified to be the President's closest confidante. Unfortunately, he can't boot her because Jarrett's ties to the Daley Administration in Chicago are the reason Michelle Obama got top job at University of Chicago Medical Center. You scratch my back, i'll scratch yours.
Not to mention the Solyndra connection to Obama via campaign bundlers. It's all one big payback scheme.
This President is corrupted in so many ways its pathetic. He was supposed to be different, but he's not. We the taxpayers are left to suffer the consequences.
The Germans continue to make chimpanzees out of clueless, pollution-lovin' con's in this country who are too stupid to see the forest for the trees...
Is there any particular reason you have a problem understanding the difference in total land mass and the difference in population between Germany and the United States?
Germany is the about the size of Montana. Any reasonable person would understand that WE TOO could amount that kind of solar energy record with a country that size.
Is there any particular reason you have a problem understanding the difference in total land mass and the difference in population between Germany and the United States?
Germany has 81 million people and much less land mass and they are able to do this. We benefit from having vast sunny desert areas ideal for collecting the sun's rays for utilities. Moreover, solar is ideal for placing on roofs. Placing photovoltaic panels on roofs can reduce the home's energy consumption 75% to 100% or more -- taking the drain off of peak electrical grid demand. It's even more useful with the new plug-in cars coming on-line.
The impediment is not geography or demographics. It's political will and fossil fuel lobbyists that go to Washington with suitcases full of cash.
It's hard for politicians to do the obvious reasonable thing when someone is stuffing $100 bills in your pocket to do the opposite.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GregW
Solyndra cost us millions. What about the F-35 project that has cost us billions with no sign of success, completion or end? ]
EXACTLY! Funny how many of those who sing the blues about 'green' projects have NO problem continuing corporate welfare to the defense industry.
Solyndra has been a financial disaster, but so have SDI, the F-22, and the F-35 to name just a few pet projects of the "Power to the People Whose Names End In INC." crowd.
And Mitt's already been rattling the sabers and expressing his wish to increase that spending.
Germany has 81 million people and much less land mass and they are able to do this. We benefit from having vast sunny desert areas ideal for collecting the sun's rays for utilities. Moreover, solar is ideal for placing on roofs. Placing photovoltaic panels on roofs can reduce the home's energy consumption 75% to 100% or more -- taking the drain off of peak electrical grid demand. It's even more useful with the new plug-in cars coming on-line.
The impediment is not geography or demographics. It's political will and fossil fuel lobbyists that go to Washington with suitcases full of cash.
It's hard for politicians to do the obvious reasonable thing when someone is stuffing $100 bills in your pocket to do the opposite.
Yes, political will and funding are issues, no doubt about it. But demographics and geography are definitely a problem. How many deserts do you know of in the New England states? None, so then we turn to wind power. How many NIMBY challenges do you think will arise from the number of windmills it will take to offset peak demand periods in the nation's most densely populated region? Even the pro-green Kennedy family protested the eyesores when faced with the prospect of windmills corrupting their vistas.
Lots of challenges remain for green energy. But lets not pretend that geography has nothing to do with achieving the same rates of return as Germany has achieved. There's a reason those "fly over states" aren't the nucleus of American business interests. Distance to population centers has always been a major consideration.
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