There They go Again

According to this article by David A. Keene in the Washington Times,

Last week, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy announced it is extending an $852 million loan guarantee to something called the Genesis Solar Project in California.

Genesis, according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, will be built on federal land and ultimately employ perhaps 800 people during its construction and 47 people once it is up and running. . . .

It’s the latest in the administration’s attempt to turn us away from dependence on fossil fuels regardless of cost and reality. This project, according to Mr. Chu, “will enable the deployment of clean, renewable sources at scale, which will help bring down the cost of solar power in the years to come.”

. . . .

Solyndra . . . declared bankruptcy not 48 hours after Mr. Chu announced his faith in Genesis. Solyndra’s founders managed to procure and eat up roughly half a billion dollars in federally guaranteed loans without making a penny in profit before declaring bankruptcy.

The company got its guarantee as part Mr. Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act after its founders and board members made extensive contributions to the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party and mounted a mighty lobbying effort before Congress. Its grant was the first in a series of massive subsidies to similar enterprises and was made just weeks after Mr. Obama took office.

Nothing succeeds like success. As a Department of Energy (DOE) spokesperson said, “the project that we supported succeeded. The facility was producing the product it said it would produce, and consumers were buying the product.” Its bankruptcy before ever turning a profit was not the fault of President Obama, the Department of Energy or even Solyndra. True, the DOE spokesperson

failed to note that the solar panels Solyndra designed and manufactured were too complicated and expensive to compete in the marketplace. Those that were sold were sold at a significant loss, and the company would have closed its doors even earlier but for the federal loan guarantee.

So what! Lots of unexpected stuff happens every day. Just look at President Obama’s ratings.

It wasn’t Mr. Obama’s fault, though. Mr. Chu’s spokesman said the ultimate failure of Solyndra was traceable to those pesky market forces that continue to plague private-sector entities. In other words, it was the capitalist system rather than the administration’s flawed judgment that led to Solyndra’s downfall.

Still, “success” may be a bit of an exaggeration. How about, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Einstein said something about doing that repeatedly being a definition of insanity, but it’s just ObamaMoney from President Obama’s stash so it isn’t really crazy.