Wow, which radical right-wing deathbeast Obama-hating Rethuglican Web site ran that headline?
Err, NBC’s Bay Area affiliate:
The lede is equally brutal:
President Obama faces political catastrophe in the form of Solyndra — a San Francisco Bay area solar company that he touted as a gleaming example of green technology. It has announced it will declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. More than 1,100 people will lose their jobs.
During a visit to the Fremont facility in spring of 2010, the President said the factory “is just a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism and the fact that we continue to have the best universities in the world, the best technology in the world, and most importantly the best workers in the world. “
It’s not his statements the administration will regret; it’s the loan guarantees. The President was celebrating $535 million in federal promises from the Department of Energy to the solar startup. The administration didn’t do its due diligence, says the Government Accountability Office. “There’s a consequence if you don’t follow a rigorous process that’s transparent,” Franklin Rusco of GAO told the website iWatch News.
Last year, David Freddoso reported at the Washington Examiner, when Obama spoke at Solyndra, he claimed, “We can see the positive impacts [of the 'stimulus' package] right here at Solyndra:”
But even if Solyndra is a good example of what the stimulus package can do, it might not be the kind of example Obama wants to publicize. Jim McTague of Barron’s noted over the weekend that, two months before Obama’s glowing speech, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a fear-filled note in its audit of the company, which has accumulated losses of $558 million in its five-year lifetime. The firm noted that Solyndra “has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders’ deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.”
Obama seemed almost unaware of this when he spoke.
“We can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra,” he said. “[T]hrough the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations. This new factory is the result of those loans. Since the project broke ground last fall, more than 3,000 construction workers have been employed building this plant. Across the country, workers in 22 states are manufacturing the supplies. … Solyndra expects to hire 1,000 workers to manufacture solar panels. …”
In September 2009, months before the scathing PricewaterhouseCoopers audit, the Department of Energy had announced $535 million in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees for Solyndra. Before the ink was dry on that deal, Solyndra applied for yet another loan guarantee, this time of $469 million. That application is pending.
In case you’re not familiar with federal loan guarantees, here’s how they work: If the company doesn’t pay back the loan, then taxpayers do it for them. So if you’ve ever been tempted to roll the dice on a high-risk investment, don’t bother. The government did it for you.
(H/T: Noel Sheppard, Newsbusters)
Update: “You will be shocked to learn that Solyndra’s majority owner, Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser, was a major fundraiser for the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign.”
Update: Welcome Jim Geraghty, Stacy McCain, Ace and Insta-readers. And found via Kate of Small Dead Animals, John Hinderaker of Power Line asks a rather salient question: “Is it possible that the Obama administration can’t even do crony capitalism right?”
It’s only a disaster if the rest of the media picks it up. They won’t. So no worries!
Really, a disaster for Obama? Gosh, what’s he going to do about it?
Probably just put it with the others. He’s had so many, he could open a museum… more likely, a house of economic horrors. At last, some job creation.
I can hear the spin now: “You say it didn’t turn out as good as it could have, all right you take a chance. At least we took a chance. And that’s just one mistake that happened among thousands of successes. No one ever talks about those, Brian. And that’s why the American people are frustrated — that’s why I’m frustrated.”
I won’t copyright it. Mr. President, it’s fine with me if you use it.
“The plain and simply truth is, Americans aren’t ready for solar power, we’re too addicted to fossil fuels. So, when I place blame, I don’t blame Solyndra, I blame us.” Camera, Focus in on wagging finger.
MSM, shhhhhh, mum’s the word! Just wow, I could have created jobs with a $1million not a half billion loan! If they had picked 500 people out of the phone book and loaned them a million each, I guarantee there would have been more jobs created and they would have saved $35million at a minimum…. With the prerequisite that none of the loanees can have political ties!
Solyndra, Evergreen Solar, hmmm…. besides being boondoggles now in bankruptcy, they are also from DeepBlue states with O-bah-muhh-Zombies galore. Nancy Pelosi deserves some of the Solyndra fallout to come her way. O-bah-muhh is a SCOAMF.
L F or D, wrong district! Try Fortney [aka Pete] Stark in the Fremont congressional district. Who got the payout during the construction of Solyndra’s second site? It’s not been the 1000 workers who slave in the place. The big money went to the contruction workers.
Oh, and less than a mile away from Obama’s touted “Soulyndra” is Tesla Motors.
Anybody want to bet Tesla goes the same route?
Like Solyndra, Tesla Motors looks as though it’s Shovel Ready. Heckuva job, Brownie.
I’m trying to find info on this from difference sources, but have been unable to get confirmation. $535 million in loan guarantees doesn’t equal $535 million in funds from the government unless the company actually took those loans then didn’t pay them back.
Did Solyndra actually ink loans that would be affected by a $535 taxpayer guarantee? In other words, getting a loan guarantee is one thing, but is the taxpayer on the hook for the entire amount or did Solydra only utilize, say, half of that amount?
Anyone got any thoughts or info on that?
Compared to other Obama failures this one is a bargain at only $486,363 per job.
MT is the Bomb!!!
Solyndra was doomed to fail. How would you build a manufacturing facility in the US?
Would you find a low-cost state to manufacture in? Solyndra chose the very expensive Bay Area?
Would you lease existing industrial space? Solydra used their startup capital and loans to build $700 million in facilities. They are gorgeous. They looked really good at the president’s visit. They are super expensive.
I believe that the US can compete in manufacturing. Just do the opposite of what Solyndra did.
Wow.
So the government decided to guarantee the debt of a company that had a going concern qualification from its auditors.
Basically, the going concern qualification that the auditors put in the 10-K is standard fare for when the auditors think that there are debts that will come due during the next twelve months that the company may not be able to pay. The government lent its full faith and credit into that? What kind of due diligence did the government do? This is rank irresponsibility with taxpayer money.
The only private sector lenders (i.e., those that are interested in protecting the interests of the people who give them money) who would lend into that sort of situation would be rescue financing shops that would demand equity kickers (warrants or conversion features), security over all of the assets and very high rates of interest (think credit card debt).
Instead, all the government got was probably an IOU from these guys. This was no better than the bailout of the auto makers, and was probably worse, because at least the government got some money back from that.
Give taxpayer money to billionaire crony campaign contributors to prop up their insolvent investments?
Yes we can!
This is the Hope&Change! that you voted for.
Can’t tell how much money was actually paid out to Solyndra against those federal guarantees. I’d be willing to bet a few bucks that some of the “beneficiaries” were connected to Chicago thugs, Baltimore mobsters or Pelosi and/or her family.
Solyndra Green! Sucking the lifeblood from the people for the benefit of Obama Cronies. Bring back Charlton Heston. We need him to investigate this ! If the republicans running for office do not pick up on this they do not deserve to win.
This is clearly Bush’s fault!!!!
I’ve got news for you.
He probably either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that Solyndra went belly up.
Really, get over it America. He’s just not that into you.
Oh, and one more thing. Never mind the nearly 1/2 BILLION taxpayer dollars they took, its gone. Which raises another question: where did it go? That’s a lot of money for a small company to burn through ins such a short time.
Did the loan guarantees go to new money loans and bring more money into the company or did they go to guarantee existing loans which should have traded below par and which does not help the company?
Did the guarantee go to existing loans made by George Kaiser and his cronies so that it was really a bale out of their exisitng invesment – crony crapitalism.
The story may not make it on the MSM but no one can, ultimately, control the job market (with failed economics policies). Thankfully we have reality on our side. If the union lackies/ leftest go long enough without work even they will have to realize the Jimmy Carter-esque malaise that is coming back is no coincident. Welcome Back Carter!
Watching clips of the Iron Lady or Reagan makes me ill. How recently they were with us, and how steeply we have fallen since. Utter collapse in the UK, and a seeming determination on our side of the Atlantic to follow suit — with no statesmen or women their contemporary equals. What the unholy crap are we gonna do?
What do rich venture capitalists do when they get bored with life of real start-ups and need meaning in their lives?
They become tax farmers and parasites latching onto some low tech “green” venture that uses the taxpayers’ money.
The last line of the story is important – you, the prudent individual avoided the scam (like you avoided the mortgage and derivatives fiascoes) but you find out the government did it for you and forged your name!
Keep an eye on the likes of Tesla – that is another $500,000,000 of our money to a perennial loser. Supposedly, they are going to eventually make affordable cars (not just those smoking hot $150,000 plebeian sports cars) using American labor but what they actually used the money for is good old battery production for poor old, cash starved up-and-comers; Daimler Benz and Toyota. To add insult to injury, the production of the batteries is going to be in Ontario, Canada – CA is too damn expensive and difficult and you can’t live on Hopium.
These peckerwoods made their money knowing that the guy who puts up cash last in a venture like a manufacturing operation (and that is all the batteries and panels are – medium tech manufacturing operations based in a totally non competitive environment – CA) owns everything. Wait until you see how much the investors grabbed over the last few years when the money from Uncle Sugar was flowing – salaries, consulting fees, insider deals, etc.
Wasn’t this the 2nd Obama touted green company that went belly up? He seems to have a great track record subsidizing and promoting losers.
Sigh….I am not sure y’all get it. The loan guarantees went to a company whose majority owner is an Obama fund raiser, located in the deepest blue district in the country, with facilities built by union workers and no doubt staffed by union workers. The point of the whole operation wasnt to create green jobs or to build solar panels or to make a successful company. It was theft, plain and simple. The dems stole the money from us and gave it to their supporters. The company, factory and solar panels are only for show. Obama doesnt give a flying S if the company went belly-up because he met his goal.
I suspect every penny of that loan was taken out and finding where it went will be like hunting for hen’s teeth. What do you want to bet that the people who control the company and the local union bosses are personally much richer now that the company is broke?
I wish I was wrong.