“Program That Backed Solyndra Now Showing Successes,” proclaims a December 29 article by Henry C. Jackson of the Associated Press. He finds an example of success in Hugoton, Kansas, site of a new cellulosic ethanol refinery funded in part by a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The same program, Mr. Jackson…
Read More »
The media love anniversary stories, but last month the fifth anniversary of President Obama’s stimulus package slipped by without much fanfare. Taxpayers might recall how, in 2008, spending on the order of $800 billion was urgently called for and delivered. But it failed to stimulate much economic growth. In the last three months of…
Read More »
Fisker Automotive has laid off most of its employees, a sign of impending doom for a company some called Solyndra on wheels, with good reason. Fisker got a federal Advanced Vehicle Technology Loan of $529 million, about the same amount Solyndra received before laying off its employees and going bankrupt. The $529 million came…
Read More »
Millions of Americans are bracing for fiscal cliff fallout, looking for jobs, postponing purchases and cutting back on spending. Not so Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. As the Los Angeles Times noted, Mr. Musk just plunked down $17 million for a 20,248-square-foot Bel-Air mansion with a gym, seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, tennis court,…
Read More »
In 2007, energy researchers at Colorado State University created AVA Solar, which became Abound Solar of Loveland, Colorado, with manufacturing facilities in Tipton, Indiana. The President of the United States, Barack Obama, touted Abound Solar as an example of the clean-energy future, claiming it would create 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs. Members of…
Read More »
In 2009 the federal government gave a $249 million grant to A123 Systems, a green energy manufacturer touted by President Obama as an example of “what’s possible in a clean energy economy.” The company used the money to make batteries for electric cars in two Michigan factories. But since 2009 the company lost $857…
Read More »
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…
Read More »
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…
Read More »
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…
Read More »
In “For Obama’s green-car revolution, fits and starts” in the Washington Post, Carol Leonig and Joe Stephens report that the highly-touted, taxpayer subsidized, “green” car bonanza is failing, as production lines and sales expectations have been dramatically scaled back in recent months. In reality, this federal program is nothing but a corporate-welfare system for…
Read More »
 |
 |
 |