From the Fiscal Times: Solyndra Went on a Spending Spree After Getting Loan
Former employees of Solyndra, the shuttered solar company that exhausted half a billion dollars of taxpayer money, said they saw questionable spending by management almost as soon as a federal agency approved a $535 million government-backed loan for the start-up.
A new factory built with public money boasted a gleaming conference room with glass walls that, with the flip of a switch, turned a smoky gray to conceal the room’s occupants. Hastily purchased state-of-the-art equipment ended up being sold for pennies on the dollar, still in its plastic wrap, employees said.
As the $344 million factory went up just down the road from the company’s leased plant in Fremont, Calif., workers watched as pallets of unsold solar panels stacked up in storage. Many wondered: Was the factory needed?
“After we got the loan guarantee, they were just spending money left and right,” said former Solyndra engineer Lindsey Eastburn. “Because we were doing well, nobody cared. Because of that infusion of money, it made people sloppy.”
…
On Friday, company executives are scheduled to appear before a House committee investigating how Solyndra obtained its loan and whether the Obama White House rushed its approval for political reasons. Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover were supposed to face a grilling about the company’s spending and collapse, but they announced Tuesday that they would assert their Fifth Amendment rights because of a criminal probe of the company by the Justice Department.
Full story at the Fiscal Times h/t to Tom Nelson
There have been a couple of comments about the folks from Solyndra invoking their 5th Amendment rights in Congress. They are being investigated by another branch of the Government, namely the FBI. Any comment they make can, and likely will, be used against them should a criminal case be forthcoming. Remember that Martha Stuart was locked away for not telling the truth. Likewise “Scooter” Libby.
Solyndra officials cannot take the chance of making a false statement in Congress and are well advised to follow their lawyer’s instructions regarding their right to not answer questions.
That being said, I think they deserve a fair trail – then hang them! (sarc here)
And let’s not forget some of the other “commercial” boondoggles that taxpayer money is propping up. Also caught up in the Solyndra swill, is that genius who thinks that the answer to the world’s transportation problems, is a $100,000 “sports” car powered by chemically noxious batteries.
That’s what they need in the Maldives, or in Eritrea and Somalia, to cut their energy usage.
I once helped found a high tech startup company; there were eight of us, and we built what at one time was the largest supplier of LED products in the world.
We started the company on $350,000 ; less than 0.1% of what Solyndra just blew away in smoke, (and mirrors).
And that 350 K came right out of our own pockets; with relatives, and a handful of friends. Not a dime of public money; nor any venture capital financing went into the start-up.
Nowadays you need $100 million to start a lemonade stand. At its height, we employed about 1000 employees stateside and in Europe; plus about 3,000 more in offshore assembly employees; who enjoyed the highest pay and working conditions they had ever enjoyed in their lives; and that was in Singapore; not exactly the pauper capital of the world.
Can’t recall if the Santa Clara Dog Catcher ever visited our plant; but if he did, he would have been the highest level politician to do so..
More info on oil company taxes. Note that the oil industry is one of the few industries where taxes generally EXCEED profits.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/23069.html.
What is so puzzling is that people seem so blissfully unaware of the HUGE tax burden on Oil & Gas companies. If access to oil was not so heavily restricted and taxed by Governments globally then you can bet you would all pay a lot less at the pump!
Thanks for the descriptions of their tech. Now I see it, Solyndra was making solar cylinders. Now I get the joke.
And those who will be still be paying for that “renewable” joke and the rest throughout their working lives are currently in kindergarten, being indoctrinated in respecting Mommy Gaia by being Green, since only solar and wind and curly light bulbs will save her from their parents’ evil planet-killing energy-wasting ways.
Are we laughing yet?
Those low watt light bulbs will save the planet? It is like throwing a sugar cube into Loch Ness hoping to make the water sweeter. When will governments start to realize that clean energy although some may think it will make the planet sweeter, is so expensive to produce, that it’s better to put money into updating coal fired generators that will cut carbon emissions, particularly if they switch to black coal instead of brown. China’s doing it, and actually they are smarter than all the EU countries who are going broke and have found the clean energy efforts have done nothing to cut emissions. And have not created jobs either.
Solyndra Green – It’s People!
Darren are you referring to the Sci-Fi movie of the 70s? LOL, where they recycled people before euthanizing them into food?
Very few of these tax breaks are specific to the oil and gas industry, so removing these tax breaks would not be specific to the oil and gas industry either – unless they were written that way. If that were done, it would just be another shameless money grab. Also, I do not equate tax credits with a straight out payment directly from the Treasury – big difference.
You’ve also failed to point out how the oil and gas industry has “squandered” these misnamed “subsidies”.
If you’re arguing that these tax loopholes should be closed, fine. I’m all for it. Think of how much GE would save on Tax Attorneys and Accountants.
It only makes sense. We use too much cropland to grow biofuels, so why not recycle and reprocess people into food? It will help with the overpopulation issue as well. We simply issue people ration cards (embedded NFC chips will work) and when they use up their ration of resources, we ‘send them to go live an a farm.’ We could even fund a big send-off bash, if we’re feeling generous.
Of course, some people are more equal than others, so they would get a bigger ration. And there would be exemptions for doing the right things, or extra incentives (resource credits) for doing things to promote the common good.
@izen:
Government was created to serve the citizens. It’s primary purpose is to protect our rights. As I citizen, I have an obligation to pay taxes and obey the laws. Government does not allow me to be prosperous as I, a citizen, am the government’s master.
Scooter Libby suffered a miscarriage of justice because of a mad prosecutor and a complicit media.
The FBI one morning
Lost its notes suborning.
Eckenrode,
Where is that toad?
He’s wanted at a harrowing.
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If the CFO of Solyndra is immunized by Congress, he may testify to the fraudulence of the $75 million from Argonaut.
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Wussup, Antnee?
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The art of accounting is before the world. This new model is perfect. Lets just Greece the skids and go forth. Fed gov’t has established that Wind onshore is now at $68 and coal is at $67 per mega watt. Oh so clean. Gov’t loop holes. My utility is required by law to purchase the wind power from the producer(subsidy) at the PUC established rate. This utility then must sell the added wattage to its customers by increasing the coal/oil plant costs/watt. REA-CPUC allows the manufacturer of Fed electricity to sell to a worthy municipal utility at a less than cost factor, and then for that utility to resell any unused (always budget more than a city can use) to the established mainline utilities at a mark up above the manufactured rate.
Nuke Nemesis says: @ur momisugly September 27, 2011 at 6:24 am
” ” bushbunnyy says:
Darren are you referring to the Sci-Fi movie of the 70s? LOL, where they recycled people before euthanizing them into food?”
It only makes sense. We use too much cropland to grow biofuels, so why not recycle and reprocess people into food? It will help with the overpopulation issue as well….””
Don’t give “Them” any ideas. They are already eyeing US 401K retirement plans. I always figured the politicians would figure out a way to grab that money…… (See: Confiscation of Private Retirement Accounts: US Departments of Labor and Treasury Schedule Hearing
Tom says:
September 26, 2011 at 8:35 am
“I’m unsure on this. Silicon fab plants are expensive. Very expensive. The likes of Intel and AMD spend $10-$20bn on each new plant. Obviously solar panels are not on the same scale as this, but I don’t know if $350m to set one up is excessive or not.”
Sorry Tom but you should wonder why the likes of Intel (though they claim to have shut down…not according to my friends but…) and AMD have research/factories just outside Shanghai. I drove past them every day for the last 5 years during which time Microsoft were building there new place all based around
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20090221_microsoft_shanghai_zizhu_campus.htm
Solyndra picked the wrong technology end of…Rank poor management exposed by rank poor government! China loved it though!
Much gracious, mods.
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Remember the film “The Producers” ???????
Solyndra was a worked out in advance,cold,calculated FRAUD!!!!!!
“”””” kadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
September 26, 2011 at 10:44 pm
Thanks for the descriptions of their tech. Now I see it, Solyndra was making solar cylinders. Now I get the joke “‘””””
Just look at the company logo KD. They deposit a non silicon photosensitive layer; somewhat akin to the drum in a XEROX machine, onto the inside of a glass tube; well thousands of them.
The theory is the sun can hit the tube from any angle, without steering, plus it can receive diffuse solar energy from the blue sky, or the white cloud cover. So how many orders of magnitude down is the blue sky from the solar image surface. And aren’t those clouds infra-red sources ?
Well their glass tube has pi times the amount of glass as the flat glass protective cover on conventional solar panels, and the projected area of those tubes isn’t any greater than a flat plate. And blow me down, if you put those glass tubes side by side touching, then they shadow each other so you have to space them apart by quite a distance to capture dawn to dusk sunshine. Can you see that land area evaporating before your eyes.
Tilted panel arrays look great in terms of peak solar output when pointing directly at the sun; but you can only make them so big and then they shadow each other NO MATTER HOW you geometrically arrange them.
You cannot beat the total output from a simple totally flat solar cell array parallel to the ground, in terms of AVERAGE WATTS PER SQUARE METRE.
It’s land area they aren’t making any more of. The Solyndra “technology” is a ball busting joke.
And they were betting on the price of silicon continuing to rise. Hey after the Arabs run out of oil; guess what pile of raw material they have the most of next ?
And who is going to clean all those glass cylinders when the birds crap all over them.
I can’t believe that otherwise intelligent investors bought into the tubular scam; and it amazes me that the lame stream media still haven’t discovered that the problem was; it’s a juvenile; not even 4H club way to try and herd solar energy into a corrall.
Try to find out from Solyndra sources just what the average Electrical Watts per square metre of their fully installed solar “panels”, and how many Watt hours per day say at 45 deg N latitude on a mid June day.
“”””” D Marshall says:
September 26, 2011 at 1:07 pm
The Solyndra screwup is unfortunate and likely preventable but there are lots of pieces to this story, not least is the recent huge investment in solar by China, over $20 billion dollars, allowing their plants to undercut just about anyone.
A good chunk of China’s success (not all, of course) has been from them gaming the system, such as keeping the yuan artificially low against the greenback. Had they played it straight all along, they likely would have lost a significant chunk of manufacturing jobs to India and Vietnam years ago.
It’s easy to point fingers at the current administration but the Solyndra deal goes back to 2005 and the Bush administration did try to fast-track it. “””””
Sorry D, the Obama White House has tried to pin Solyndra on Bush. They may have examined it; they NEVER fast tracked it whatever that means; and BEFORE Bush left office; they soundly rejected it; so that dog won’t hunt. Yes I’m sure these scoundrels tried to scam the Bushies; corporate welfare types don’t care which prostitutes they approach.
But this one is Obama and his yuppies and Energy Czar Steven Chu; who thinks you can educate microbes to make energy.
And it has nothing to do with the chicoms. Even if their manufacturing costs were zero, Solyndra would still go belly up; because they don’t make useful solar energy collectors.
And please don’t include taxpayer subsidies in your accounting of solar energy growth.
This whole thing stinks to high heaven. They’re a hive of nest-feathering, trough-snouting shysters and let’s all hope they get fingered for it – right up the chain to O’Bummer.
I for one am sick to death of seeing and hearing about this monumental waste of money – and what makes it even worse is that it’s not even money that’s in the coffers, it’s just more debt being piled upon more debt.
Sheer, utter madness of the first order.
Stimulus money is never spent well. Whether it is money tossed by Republicans (given to companies to rebuild Iraq) or Democrats (given to companies engaging in green technologies). At the very least, stimulus money schemes should require 2/3rds majority in both the senate and house as well as by approval by the Pres. My personal preference is that it be outlawed.
Well, izen, others have so thoroughly shot your argument to holes, it’s hard to find any of the original target still intact, but here goes:
izen says:
Either subsidies are good or bad – depending of your ideological outlook.
But both ‘sides’ tend to favor the subsidies for industries they support and attack subsidies for industries they dislike.
Your argument is fundamentally flawed. “Good or bad” does NOT depend on one’s ideological outlook. The basic function of a subsidy is to produce a significant net benefit to the entity issuing the subsidy. If it does, then it is “good”; if not, then it is “bad”. It’s not too difficult to find a significant benefit provided by domestic oil production, even when the industry as a whole enjoys large profits. But Solyndra and quite a few other sketchy “green” startups were a longshot, at best, at realizing a net benefit. That there were officials within the administration trying to put the brakes on this deal goes to show that this subsidy was little more than speculation. That the loan was restructured to put tax payers last in line to recoup appears criminal.
I find your moral equivalence of the two ridiculous.
Speaking of moral equivalencies, from the Department of What Goes Around, Comes Around:
In the mid-70’s I worked part-time for the Sunshine Collection Agency of Boulder, CO, a small (6-8 employees) fabricator/installer of solar hot water panels & systems. We fabbed collectors with treated wood frames, black-painted sheet metal, and standard 1/2″ copper pipe. Simple, reliable, and reasonably efficient (about 60% system efficiency, as i recall). Like most of the several-hundred small solar firms around the southwest, the owners of SCA weren’t getting rich but they were doing OK, and the industry & technology were seeing modest but steady growth.
Then Jimmy Carter was elected. He declared the energy “crisis” the moral equivalent of war, and with great fanfare announced tax breaks for homeowners who purchased solar heating systems, roof insulation, etc; and incentives & direct grants to SS manufacturers. Problem was, it took congress over a year to actually pass the legislation, and in the meantime homeowners quite sensibly deferred ordering solar heating systems in order to get their promised tax breaks. None of those small solar companies could ride out a dry spell that long; they all went belly-up. But a lot of big corporations saw the opportunity for some easy profits, so they (also) quite sensibly jumped into the solar heating business. Most of them had zero experience. Grumman Aerospace came out with a line of way-cool collector panels with airfoil-shaped clear acrylic covers . . . which behaved like airfoils and popped out in as little as 20mph winds. Citgo and some of the other petrogiants had similarly ridiculous products.
The net result was that the small, innovative companies were starved out, the big “dumb” corporations produced junk but pocketed hundreds of millions in direct and indirect subsidies, and the solar heating industry got such a bad rep that it pretty much died for almost 25 years (and I got aced out of a nice part-time job; but at least I got a little back in the early ‘80s. Just before the energy tax credits ran out we re-insulated our attic – we made about $60.00 on the deal).
So take your pick:
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
or
Anything the private sector can do, government can do worse.
Let’s have no more of this nonsense about the Obama adminstration not being able to generate new green jobs
http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/26/epa-regulations-would-require-230000-new-employees-21-billion/
EPA: Regulations would require 230,000 new employees, $21 billion
The Environmental Protection Agency has said new greenhouse gas regulations, as proposed, may be “absurd” in application and “impossible to administer” by its self-imposed 2016 deadline. But the agency is still asking for taxpayers to shoulder the burden of up to 230,000 new bureaucrats — at a cost of $21 billion — to attempt to implement the rules.
The EPA aims to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act, even though the law doesn’t give the EPA explicit power to do so. The agency’s authority to move forward is being challenged in court by petitioners who argue that such a decision should be left for Congress to make.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/26/epa-regulations-would-require-230000-new-employees-21-billion/#ixzz1ZErbflLs