When it comes to the amount of money that’s wasted by governments, it’s hard to beat corporate welfare for both its size and its endurance. All too often, once a company is gifted with taxpayer money to “stimulate the economy” or to “stabilize the market” or to “keep jobs here”, it opens the door…
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“Solyndra’s power solutions offer strong return on investment and make great business sense.” That is a rather strange claim for the website of Solyndra Inc., accessed on August 29, 2012 no less. Some history is in order. Solyndra was the first renewable energy firm to get federal stimulus money and bagged $535 million in…
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The Wall Street Journal reports in “Ethanol vs. the World: The corn fuel mandate is raising food prices and hurting the poor,” that the massive federal corporate welfare subsidies to corn farmers and mandates for ethanol production are “a man-made disaster that could be stopped if the EPA or others in Washington cared for…
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How much welfare do corporations receive as a direct cash benefit from the U.S. government? According to a recently published Cato Institute policy analysis, it’s nearly 100 billion dollars. We mined the report to visualize which U.S. government agencies or spending categories are the biggest recipients of the largesse of U.S. politicians: The majority…
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In “Firm sells solar panels — to itself, taxpayers pay” in the Washington Examiner, Timothy Carney reports that First Solar has received $17.3 million in corporate-welfare subsidies from the Obama administration and then an additional $455.7 million in loan guarantees from the Export-Import Bank to purchase its own solar panels: A heavily subsidized solar…
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In a new report from the Washington Post, “The Influence Industry: Obama gives administration jobs to some big fundraisers,” T.W. Farnam reports that while Obama campaigned on “the most sweeping ethics reform in history” and has criticized money in politics: More than half of Obama’s 47 biggest fundraisers, those who collected at least $500,000…
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A revolving door between green energy firms and the Department of Energy is a prime example of crony capitalism in full swing. As the Washington Post reports, rent-seeking businessmen like Sanjay Wagel are going where the money is. Following an enduring Washington tradition, Wagle shifted from the private sector, where his firm hoped to…
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In an Associated Press article in the San Jose Mercury News, “Parent of Obama-backed battery maker goes bankrupt,”Matthew Daly reports that yet another “green” company that received corporate welfare from the Obama administration has now gone bankrupt. In this case, the electric car-battery company Ener1 received $118 million from the Department of Energy in…
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Christopher Jensen reports in the New York Times on yet another disaster from the massive U.S. corporate-welfare (i.e., pork) for “green” cars, this time luxury vehicles for the uber-rich: Fisker Automotive is recalling all 239 of its 2012 Karma luxury plug-in hybrid cars because of a fire hazard, according to a report filed with the…
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In new analysis from the Mackinac Center, James Hohman discusses how $3 billion in federal and state funding for General Motors’ Chevy Volt, the much acclaimed “green,” plug-in, hybrid electric vehicle, is costing taxpayers $250,000 per car. As noted by Hohman, the Volt “might be the most government-supported car since the Trabant,” the car…
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