The company cost at least half a billion dollars, and employed 1,100, meaning each job cost the American taxpayers nearly half a million dollars. The company wasn’t viable, is bankrupt and under investigation, and now the workers need re-training for jobs in the non-green economy. And guess who they want to pay for it:
Ex-employees of the failed solar panel company Solyndra have applied for aid under the federal government’s Trade Adjustment Assistance program, the Labor Department has confirmed.
If approved, the employees of what was once touted as a leading exemplar of the White House’s green jobs program will be eligible for more federal funds to enable them to be retrained for other jobs.
It would be an ironic coda to the saga of Solyndra, which manufactured solar panels and received $527 million in loan guarantees from the Energy Department and praise from President Obama during visits to the firm’s California headquarters.
Now those green workers will be seeking the government’s help to find work again and not necessarily in the conservation jobs sector.
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The request was made by a representative of the 1,100 ex-employees and covers all of them. The department estimates the aid will cost $13,000 per worker for the coming year.
1,100 employees times $13,000 apiece = $14,300,000 more money.
Whoops–you made an error there. Instead of “meaning each job cost the American taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars” I think it should read half a “million” dollars.
But don’t worry, I’m sure the new money will be well spent retraining them to do maintenance on electric generating windmills.
Yup, corrected.
Maybe the windmills will keep them cool.
Wouldn’t that be like … admitting failure?
Your question brings this to mind…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpyKnJOCIy4
Why shouldn’t they apply for this stuff? The funds are for unemployed workers, not only unemployed workers whose previous bosses weren’t political flunkies. I doubt the ex-CEO, CFO, etc are in this group. The TAA program itself may be sketchy but the applicants aren’t at fault for it.
This story feels like demonizing the night cleaning crew at Enron or screaming at the guy working the register at a BP.
The point is that Obama told us “old fashioned” jobs are out and we need a federal program (meaning billions of dollars, mostly for his administration of such an important program) to train existing old fashioned workers to do the “millions” of modern, profitable “green” jobs.
So here we have the “green” Solyndra company, funded by the American taxpayer against his will, predictably going bankrupt, the taxpayers’ millions evaporating, and the “answer” is for more federal (taxpayer) money to be spent to “retrain” the green workers for…what? More bankrupt “green” jobs that don’t exist?
– hit the train a-comin’ and a-goin’!
My God! The failure of Solyndra is only the tip of the iceberg. The whole US Solar industry is going to take a bath. China is the best and major supplier of solar panels. They are over producing these panels. Now that Italy has opted out of the Green Energy fad there is even a GREATER over supply. If Obama is so smart, how did he let us get taken to the cleaners?
Obama is not smart. He is as dumb as a box of rocks. Another example of affirmative action.
You made a mistake in word usage …. I think you meant “Taxpayer Funded Te-Training.”
You made a mistake in word usage …. I think you meant “Taxpayer Funded Re-Training.”
If sanity returns at the next election and the silly subsidies are discontinued guess who else is going to take a bath.
Aren’t they already trained for ‘green’ jobs? What do they have to be retrained for – ‘real’ jobs?
Solyndra Green is people!