The recent bankruptcy of solar-panel-maker Solyndra shows, once again, that the entire concept of "green energy" jobs was bankrupt from the start.
"Green jobs" are the last refuge of the subsidy seekers. Industries that can't survive in the free market like to claim they are creating "green jobs" because that helps them justify their subsidy-dependent businesses.
In February, the Renewable Fuels Association put out a report which claimed the domestic ethanol sector directly supports 70,000 jobs. The CBO estimates that each gallon of gasoline displaced by ethanol costs taxpayers $1.78. With the ethanol sector now producing the equivalent of 9.1 billion gallons of gasoline per year, the total cost to taxpayers of the ethanol scam is therefore about $16.2 billion. That works out to $230,000 per job created by an industry that produces a product that is inferior in nearly every way when compared to conventional gasoline. And yet Congressional mandates are forcing American motorists to buy motor fuel that has been adulterated with corn ethanol.
Similar problems are evident in the subsidy-dependent wind energy business, which is constantly touting "green" jobs as a justification for yet more taxpayer subsidies. The American Wind Energy Association even has a website, careersinwind.com, which promises to provide "all the information you need to be prepared for your new wind energy job." Unfortunately, the jobs created by the wind industry are so expensive that not even Boone Pickens, the Dallas-based billionaire who a few years ago was one of the wind business's biggest boosters, could afford many of them. Last December, the Texas Comptroller estimated that each "green" job associated with wind in Texas cost the state's taxpayers $1.6 million.
And now we have the announcement that Solyndra, which got a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, has filed for bankruptcy. What was the problem? It couldn't compete with foreign manufacturers who were able to produce solar panels at lower cost. The result: 1,100 jobs were lost and American taxpayers are now on the hook for all or part of the loan guarantee.
Last May, during a visit to the Solyndra plant in California, President Obama said that "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra."
If that's true, then the U.S. economy is in even worse shape than we thought.
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The loan guarantee given to Solyndra was approved by Bush.
Now that Solyndra is bankrupt, you say this is proof that the loan guarantee program is a failure, but Solyndra represented only 1.3% of the whole program, the rest being successful.
Sometimes businesses fail. In this case it was because Solyndra panels didn't use silicon like other approaches. Then the cost of silicon dropped and Solyndra could no longer compete.
I do however agree with you on one point... Your totally wrong about this subject!
Why? Perhaps it's because one of their main investors (George Kaiser) was a big contributor to Obama. What's even worse is this guy is line before the US gov't to get his money back in the bankruptcy.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/07/how-did-solyndra-get-a-sweetheart-interest-rate/
Americans are yawningly uninterested in global warming; fifteen years after the Kyoto treaty, the public couldn’t care less. According to a March 2010 Gallup poll, 48 percent of Americans believe that the extent of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 31 percent in 1997 when Gallup first asked the question. And that's before any taxes have been levied, any emissions have been capped, or any freedoms have been abridged. Even in Germany, the planet’s poster child for model global citizenship, opinion polls show a drastic reversal in public sentiment with only 42 percent of Germans now expressing angst uber global warming.
The solution is simple --The LMAD plan's CARBON TAX!
Google "LMADster"
"While the US was not included among the 37 countries analyzed by IEA, it too has traditionally given more incentives to fossil fuels than renewable energy. The US allotted $72 billion to fossil fuels from 2002–2008, but only $29 billion to renewable energy over the same period, according to the Environmental Law Institute."
From http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/12/oil-and-renewables-slicing-up-the-subsidy-pie
I imagine the number for renewable subsidies may have gone up since 2008 to correspond with the Administration's push for more investment in the area, but I doubt it comes anywhere close to the amount the oil and natural gas and coal industries continue to receive, even though they remain some of the most profitable companies in the history of mankind.
Solyndra is just one company out of many that are/were entering into the green energy industry. It is not a surprise that a company will go under right now. With so many companies entering into the field, it only makes sense that the weakest will begin to drop off. Economic natural selection. The problem right now is that Solyndra received the big loan and now there are concerns about government favoritism and corruption, and unfortunately that story is the one that is sticking.
An apt analogy would be the automobile industry back when it was first coming around. There were literally dozens of different car companies out there. If we looked at the automobile industry the same way we look at green tech now, we would have someone hemming and hawing and saying that the automobile will never catch on or will never supplant the horse and buggy simply because a few companies failed. Meanwhile the Fords, the Chevrolets, the Chryslers, etc. were continuing to chug away.
Anyway...you are wrong. Evergreen Solar has also failed.....but hey, they only got $68 million.
Now, if the Feds want to BUY solar panels from these companies and install them on Federal buildings...I wouldn't have problem with that.
Does the White House have solar panels on it's roof?
Exactly.
Oh...guess what...neither does Gore's house.