Obama Administration Invested Billions in Companies Supported by Energy Dept. Insider

[Robodoon]

Obama Admin Invested Billions in Companies Supported by Energy Dept Insiders

Noel Brinkerhoff
All Gov
February 16, 2012

Following on the Solyndra controversy, the Department of Energy under President Barack Obama is now accused of funneling billions of dollars in funding to companies that have connections within the department.

An investigation by The Washington Post found that the Energy Department has approved nearly $4 billion in federal grants and financing to 21 companies supported by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers.

Of this amount, $2.46 billion flowed to nine businesses that have ties to VantagePoint Venture Partners, a venture capital firm where Sanjay Wagle, an Energy Department adviser, worked before coming to Washington.

The other four officials identified by the Post include Assistant Secretary David Sandalow, who previously worked for Good Energies, a company that received $737 million from the Energy Department; and Steve Westly, a longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur and now a member of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s advisory board. The Westly Group took in $600 million in federal financing.

The Obama administration says that the Energy Department employees and advisers took no part in grant-making decisions, which would mean that these business windfalls were just happy coincidences.

AllGov - News - Obama Administration Invested Billions in Companies Supported by Energy Dept. Insiders

Comment: Obama and his evil buddies pushing UN Agenda 21 for profit and control.
More Corporate evil from the left who is always blaming the right for just that thing.

 

[Truthmatters]

accused would be the opporative word here

 

[Misty]

"Despite most of the media’s heroic efforts to keep the American public away from the word “Solyndra,” word of the massive scandal is starting to seep into the groundwater of public consciousness. Wait until they get a load of SunPower.Not to beat Solyndra into the ground, but, we just note in utter disbelief that earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that newly released e-mails show “the Obama administration’s Energy Department was poised to give Solyndra a second taxpayer loan of $469 million last year, even as the company’s financial situation grew increasingly dire.”

SunPower: Twice the Green Jobs Scandal for the Obama Administration of Solyndra | Green & Clean

 

[waltky]

Granny says there's a spidey inna woodpile somewheres...

Bonuses given after raises at Solyndra
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - Worker incentive paid during bankruptcy

Several of the nearly two dozen employees at bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC who were approved for bonuses Wednesday had months earlier received pay raises as high as 70 percent, a fact the company never disclosed in its request for bonus cash. The company’s bankruptcy attorneys sought permission for the bonuses in a court hearing, arguing that the extra cash is needed to keep key employees from fleeing only to be replaced by more expensive outside consultants. With little chance of stable employment and officials moving to liquidate assets, the workers needed to wind down the company have little incentive to stay, the Solyndra attorneys argued.

But an attorney for fired Solyndra workers railed against the plan, saying several of the proposed bonus recipients had received significant salary increases even after the company went bankrupt. The disclosure drew sharp criticism from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath, who called it “shocking” that the company had not disclosed the pay raises in its bonus request. Solyndra attorney Bruce Grohsgal defended not including that information in the bonus request, saying the raises were given as part of the company’s ordinary course of business since the employees had taken on more responsibilities. “There was no thought we were hiding something,” he said.

He also said the employee who received a 70 percent raise was earning less than $70,000 in base salary but had taken on many new responsibilities. Solyndra sought the bonuses weeks ago, raising the ire of Republican members of Congress who called on the Obama administration to oppose the extra payments. The Justice Department filed no opposition to the request. While disturbed at what she called a lack of disclosure, Judge Walrath approved the bonuses after learning that a creditors committee did not object after negotiating a lower payout than the nearly half-million dollars first sought.

She said she also took into account the testimony of a compensation specialist who said that the bonuses were in line with market rates. The names of the bonus recipients were not disclosed. In the reduced bonus plan, 20 employees would received no more than $368,5000 combined. Fifteen of the 20 bonus recipients earned salaries of $100,000 or more. But Scott Leonhardt, a lawyer representing fired employees, said several of the employees had also received hefty bonus payments in the year before the bankruptcy.

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[tinydancer]

"Despite most of the media’s heroic efforts to keep the American public away from the word “Solyndra,” word of the massive scandal is starting to seep into the groundwater of public consciousness. Wait until they get a load of SunPower.Not to beat Solyndra into the ground, but, we just note in utter disbelief that earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that newly released e-mails show “the Obama administration’s Energy Department was poised to give Solyndra a second taxpayer loan of $469 million last year, even as the company’s financial situation grew increasingly dire.”

SunPower: Twice the Green Jobs Scandal for the Obama Administration of Solyndra | Green & Clean

I just put this up in Environment. Billions wasted. What we have here in America is just millions thrown away as well. All these projects with all these massive loans who are donors to Obama. Green = Scam when one involves government.

Germany's solar experiment collapses

Bjørn Lomborg, Financial Post · Feb. 22, 2012 | Last Updated: Feb. 22, 2012 5:19 AM ET

Germany once prided itself on being the "photovoltaic world champion," doling out generous subsidies - totalling more than US$130-billion, according to research from Germany's Ruhr University - to citizens to invest in solar energy.

But now the German government is vowing to cut the subsidies sooner than planned, and to phase out support over the next five years. What went wrong?

According to Der Spiegel, even members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's staff are now describing the policy as a massive money pit.

Philipp Rösler, Germany's Minister of Economics and Technology, has called the spiralling solar subsidies a "threat to the economy."


More at link:
Germany's solar experiment collapses

 

[waltky]

Environmental mess left at Solyndra plant...

Solyndra abandons efforts to go clean and green
Thursday, February 23, 2012 - Environmental mess left at plant

Federal officials hailed Solyndra LLC’s plan to create clean energy when they awarded the company more than a half-billion dollars in loans, but the solar-panel maker’s abrupt closure now threatens to leave behind an environmental mess. The company plans on paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up its own property in Fremont, Calif., but a separate leased property in nearby Milpitas sits vacant with barrels of unknown chemicals and lead-contaminated equipment, attorneys for the landlord, iStarCTL I L.P., said in recent bankruptcy court filings.

The full extent of the potential environmental problem at the leased Solyndra facility remains unclear. Officials at iStar say in court papers that they were not given the keys to the premises until this month, though Solyndra stopped making its lease payments in September when it filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware. “There may be environmental, health and safety issues and regulatory violations at the premises based on the materials the debtor has left behind, which consist, in part, of open containers of unidentified chemical waste and lead processing machinery,” iStar attorney Karen Bifferato wrote in a recent court filing.

Photographs attached to the iStar court filing provide an inside look at Solyndra’s stripped-down facility after the company hauled away whatever equipment might fetch money at auction. In one picture, two large blue drums are filled with a black substance with no secure lids and covered instead with clear plastic wrap. Another photograph shows a yellow drum about the size of a large garbage can containing a yellow-brown gooey substance. Yet another picture shows a large machine with a metallic tube coming from the top and another tube from the side. Both tubes display the words “lead exhaust.” A smaller sign on the front of the machine says “toxic” next to what appears to be a small skull and crossbones. A large structure outside the facility has the words “Argon Refrigerated Liquid” on its side.

Court filings from the landlord also describe a high temperature oven assembly that is connected to an outside collection system, all of which are contaminated with lead. “It is not yet known if the lead contaminated equipment at the iStar premises poses an imminent health problem, and since iStar only recently obtained access … it is in the process of having the lead contamination investigated,” the landlord stated in court papers. At a bankruptcy hearing Wednesday, Ms. Bifferato said the landlord is worried that it will be stuck with “a big mess with potential environmental problems,” including Environmental Protection Agency violations.

MORE

 

[uscitizen]

Damn it is Haliburton all over again.

 

[Listening]

At least they are consistent and non discriminating.

They'll buy off anyone they can...regardless of race, color, or sexual orientation.