more than $1Billion more taxpayer dollars to solar firms net 52 permanent jobs

you just can't make up this crap. 52 permanent jobs, $1.1 Billion spent


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department on Wednesday approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona, two days before the expiration date of a program that has become a rallying cry for Republican critics of the Obama administration's green energy program.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 megawatt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nev., and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 megawatt solar plant near Phoenix.

The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra Inc., a California solar panel maker that went bankrupt after receiving the money and laid off 1,100 workers. Solyndra is under investigation by the FBI and is the focal point of House hearings on the program.

SolarReserve LLC, of Santa Monica, Calif., the parent company for Tonopah, is privately held. The Energy Department said its rules prevented it from discussing the company's financial information. Sempra Energy of San Diego, which owns Mesquite, is publicly held.

Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said the two projects had extensive reviews that included scrutiny of the parent companies' finances.

Chu said the Nevada project would produce enough electricity to power more than 43,000 homes, while the Arizona project would power nearly 31,000 homes. The two projects will create about 900 construction jobs and at least 52 permanent jobs, Chu said.

"If we want to be a player in the global clean energy race, we must continue to invest in innovative technologies that enable commercial-scale deployment of clean, renewable power like solar," Chu said in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is a strong supporter of the Nevada project, which he says will help his state's economy recover. sec- yeah, those 52 permanent jobs sure will help a whole heapFormer Gov. Jim Gibbons, a Republican, also supported the project.

The loan approvals came just two days before a renewable energy loan program approved under the 2009 economic stimulus law is set to expire. At least seven projects worth more than $5 billion are pending.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of a House energy subcommittee that is investigating Solyndra, said the impending deadline was no reason to complete loans before they are ready.

"Solyndra was the product of a bad bet rushed out the door, and taxpayers are now on the hook," he said. "We cannot afford DOE rushing out more Solyndras in these final hours."

A government watchdog group said the Solyndra bankruptcy shows the need for greater oversight of all the department's loan guarantee programs.

"It is time for a full audit of their activities, their management and their results," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, Washington-based advocacy group.

"Candidly, it might be time for the federal government to rethink the whole idea of loan programs," Schatz added, calling the government's track record on loan guarantees "lousy."

Too often, the government either backs risky or failing ventures, resulting in a loss of taxpayer money, or subsidizes companies and industries that are mature and profitable and don't need the money, such as the oil and gas industry, Schatz said.

Scott Crider, a spokesman for Sempra Generation, a Sempra Energy subsidiary that is developing the Arizona project, said its loan guarantee was far less risky than the Solyndra loan. Most importantly, the project has a 20-year agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to buy power supplied by the solar plant, he said.

The purchase agreement is a key element of the project and will "provide assurance that there are sufficient revenues in place to support the loan guarantee," Crider said.

A similar agreement is in place in Nevada. NV Energy, the state's largest electric utility, has agreed to purchase power from the Tonopah tower, which will connect to NV Energy's power grid. The Interior Department approved the project, known as Crescent Dunes, last year.

Solyndra, of Fremont, Calif., was the first company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model. Since then, the company's implosion and revelations that officials hurried review of the loan in time for a September 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for Obama as he tries to sell his job-creation program.


linky http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-09-28-19-59-35

 

Stories like this are like water off a duck's back to lib Obama apologists.

I don't know what motivates libs to spend so much and get so little in return but the green revolution is becoming a sea of red ink.

 

since both of these boondoggles will no doubt fail, all jobs should be considered temporary. So, lets credit the Obama admin wit creatng all 952 jobs for a cool $1.1 Billion of taxpayer dollars. That's only $1.15 million per temporary job.

What happened to the $200,000 in taxpayer dollars per temporary job that Geithner discussed? Is that only for the entry level jobs and these jobs are skilled thus over 5x the cost per job???

I need details

 

I hardly know what to say anymore.

This is madness.

 

we did it to ourselves

 

Can we PUH-LEASE take the checkbook away from obama?

 

I'll say it again - I think this guy is really trying to sabotage his campaign. There can be no other reason for doing these kinds of stupid things.

It's like a death wish or something.

 

We have a "Dirt-bag In Chief".

 

You're right. We should stop funding solar research and cede this area to China too.

 

AMEN sistah!
It's become painfully obvious that solar manufacturing in the US is way too expensive.

 

If you call "funding" giving money to Obama cronies... then YES!!!!

The best solar research and development in the U.S.A. is happening at Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico. They are working on a solar fuel cell that will hold power for a prolonged period of time... FUND THAT!

 

We?

I never agreed to flush billions of dollars down the toilet chasing green jobs.

This is Obama's stupidity not ours.

 

Didn't some college develop a full spectrum solar panel some years ago?

 

Can we sue him for malpractice after we toss him out on his ass?

 

If people don't like the way these monopolies sucker the taxpayer, go out and start your own buisness and make a profit too. Do it overseas where there is 90% less capitalized overhead like medical insurance, and buisness insurance, and State fees, Saftey inspection fees, and health & Safety fees, and State taxes, and Federal taxes, and high energy cost, and excise taxes, and inspection fees, and county buisness licensing, etc.

Go and start your own buisness in Mexico, or China or S Korea or India, or Malaysia, or Vietnam, or Russia. Those countries will be open to having you start a buisness.

And the best part is you can sell your service and product to the fat lazy simple minded consumer in the USA for big fat profit. Why, because you cut capital overhead by 90%.

 

What's also obvious is that if this were PROFITABLE, the hated private sector would be cashing in on it already!

 

Funding solar research?

What Obama is funding are windmill energy companies that will go out of business without government subsidies because they are losers.

These are not even factories building the windmills with American workers.

In many cases we're buying the windmills from foreign companies and are not learning a thing.

 

Seriously?! Bush blew Trillions on a phoney war in Iraq and you want to sue over a few billion dollars that went towards solar energy research?! Wow. Talk about partisan hackery at its finest.

 

yes, we

we let the media give him a pass

we let people threaten us as being racist if we didn't allow a complete boob to get elected

we Good Americans did not fight hard enough. We knew it would be a tough fight with McCain as the alternative and the media and celebrities working against the country.

We just need to hang on until 2012 when we can send him on a permanent golf outing

 

not bad, post #18 until we get the first "blame Bush" retort

awesome

 

What research?

Solyndra went out of business so fast they couldn't have learned very much about solar power.

These are private companies pretending to be players in a free market while Obama is pretending to be a venture capitalist.

 

How many trillions?
What about the continuation of hostilities with Iraq is phony?
How does either excuse obama's waste of taxpayer money of proven failed businesses?

 

Did someone say nepotism?

 

it doesn't. What the Obama admin is doing is inexcusable so the blame Bush excuse needs to be trotted out

 

We must remove the progressives from power in 2012. Our republic is at risk.