Republicans have their own Solyndra

[chikenwing]

Not even CLOSE. The ONLY reason Solyndra failed was because the Chinese government heavily subsidized their own solar industry, undercutting the price to the point that Solyndra could not compete.

FACT!

Fact! this is old news the Chinese have for years,they knew this up front.If this was the only reason,the business model was a failure from the start.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Since we know the Chinese can undercut the price of the product, why are we putting taxpayer money into a business guaranteed to fail?

 

[Dr.Drock]

Shouldn't the OP be on here supporting this measure if he supports Obama doing it?

Yes, this reps are being hypocrites, and you are as well for laughing at this rather than supporting it since you don't laugh at Obama for doing it.

 

[Liability]

Republicans have their own Solyndra

So, we should all just forget about the President's ethical lapses.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

And we should not subsidize businesses guaranteed to fail.

The folks who insist we pour cash into these rat holes are the same ones who tell us we can't cut taxes because that will harm children.

We reduce enough of this stupid, we can cut taxes and let people produce things we need at prices we can afford.

 

[Conservative]

1 GOP rep does not make the entire GOP. However, 1 President Obama DOES make the Obama administration.

You're comparing apples to bananas.

He. Was. Chairman.

That means he represented Republican interests for that committee.

Are you really this stupid?

There is a difference between representing an entire administration which tries (and achieved) to push through a questionable loan for a company that the previous administration had financial doubts about...

and being the committee chair and pushing for (and failing to get) a loan for a company that later goes under.

Are you really this stupid?

Now, if you can show us that the Michigan company had financial questions and the Obama administration knew about it and the Republican Rep pushed for the loan anyway, then you might have at least a similarity of situations. Right now, you got bubkus.

cat got your tongue, Synth?

 

[Misty]

"This week the Obama-funded solar company went belly up.
Energy Conversion Devices managed to blow $13.3 million in tax credits before filing for bankruptcy.

Of course… Democrats praised the company as one of his solar success stories before they tanked."

Another Obama-Funded Solar Company Goes Belly Up – Given $13.3 Million in Tax Credits | The Gateway Pundit





*

 

[Synthaholic]

Since we know the Chinese can undercut the price of the product, why are we putting taxpayer money into a business guaranteed to fail?

Translation: America should just lie down - we can't compete with China. And shouldn't try.

 

[GuyPinestra]

Since we know the Chinese can undercut the price of the product, why are we putting taxpayer money into a business guaranteed to fail?

Translation: America should just lie down - we can't compete with China. And shouldn't try.

Wrong answer. We should rescind MFN status, buck up to the problem and get our own manufacturing back up and running. Doing business with 1.5 BILLION Chinese was a bad idea from the beginning.

We can thank the Globalists George 'NWO' Bush and 'Slick Willy' Clinton for THAT fiasco, as well as NAFTA.

 

[Synthaholic]

Once again, Republicans are allergic to facts:




Exclusive Timeline: Bush Administration Advanced Solyndra Loan Guarantee for Two Years, Media Blow the Story

By Stephen Lacey and Climate Guest Blogger on Sep 13, 2011 at 11:10 am

by Stephen Lacey and Richard Caperton


It’s often claimed that the Solyndra loan guarantee was “rushed through” by the Obama Administration for political reasons. In fact, the Solyndra loan guarantee was a multi-year process that the Bush Administration launched in 2007.


You’d never know from the media coverage that:

1. The Bush team tried to conditionally approve the Solyndra loan just before President Obama took office.
2. The company’s backers included private investors who had diverse political interests.
3. The loan comprises just 1.3% of DOE’s overall loan portfolio. To date, Solyndra is the only loan that’s known to be troubled.

Because one of the Solyndra investors, Argonaut Venture Capital, is funded by George Kaiser — a man who donated money to the Obama campaign — the loan guarantee has been attacked as being political in nature. What critics don’t mention is that one of the earliest and largest investors, Madrone Capital Partners, is funded by the family that started Wal-Mart, the Waltons. The Waltons have donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates over the years.


With a stagnant job market and Obama sinking in the polls, the media has decided on a narrative that matches right-wing talking points but not the facts. For instance, Bloomberg had this incredibly misleading headline yesterday, “Obama Team Backed $535 Million Solyndra Aid as Auditor Warned on Finances.” If you replace “backed” with “touted,” that would be accurate. But the headline makes it seem like the White House had decided to give $535 million to a company after an auditor had said it was financially troubled.


*snip*

May 2005: Just as a global silicon shortage begins driving up prices of solar photovoltaics [PV], Solyndra is founded to provide a cost-competitive alternative to silicon-based panels.
July 2005: The Bush Administration signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law, creating the 1703 loan guarantee program.
February 2006 – October 2006: In February, Solyndra raises its first round of venture financing worth $10.6 million from CMEA Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and U.S. Venture Partners. In October, Argonaut Venture Capital, an investment arm of George Kaiser, invests $17 million into Solyndra. Madrone Capital Partners, an investment arm of the Walton family, invests $7 million. Those investments are part of a $78.2 million fund.
December 2006: Solyndra Applies for a Loan Guarantee under the 1703 program.
Late 2007: Loan guarantee program is funded. Solyndra was one of 16 clean-tech companies deemed ready to move forward in the due diligence process. The Bush Administration DOE moves forward to develop a conditional commitment.
October 2008: Then Solyndra CEO Chris Gronet touted reasons for building in Silicon Valley and noted that the “company’s second factory also will be built in Fremont, since a Department of Energy loan guarantee mandates a U.S. location.”
November 2008: Silicon prices remain very high on the spot market, making non-silicon based thin film technologies like Solyndra’s very attractive to investors. Solyndra also benefits from having very low installation costs. The company raises $144 million from ten different venture investors, including the Walton-family run Madrone Capital Partners. This brings total private investment to more than $450 million to date.
January 2009: In an effort to show it has done something to support renewable energy, the Bush Administration tries to take Solyndra before a DOE credit review committee before President Obama is inaugurated. The committee, consisting of career civil servants with financial expertise, remands the loan back to DOE “without prejudice” because it wasn’t ready for conditional commitment.
March 2009: The same credit committee approves the strengthened loan application. The deal passes on to DOE’s credit review board. Career staff (not political appointees) within the DOE issue a conditional commitment setting out terms for a guarantee.
June 2009: As more silicon production facilities come online while demand for PV wavers due to the economic slowdown, silicon prices start to drop. Meanwhile, the Chinese begin rapidly scaling domestic manufacturing and set a path toward dramatic, unforeseen cost reductions in PV. Between June of 2009 and August of 2011, PV prices drop more than 50%.
September 2009: Solyndra raises an additional $219 million. Shortly after, the DOE closes a $535 million loan guarantee after six months of due diligence. This is the first loan guarantee issued under the 1703 program. From application to closing, the process took three years – not the 41 days that is sometimes reported. OMB did raise some concerns in August not about the loan itself but how the loan should be “scored.” OMB testified Wednesday that they were comfortable with the final scoring.
January – June 2010: As the price of conventional silicon-based PV continues to fall due to low silicon prices and a glut of solar modules, investors and analysts start questioning Solyndra’s ability to compete in the marketplace. Despite pulling its IPO (as dozens of companies did in 2010), Solyndra raises an additional $175 million from investors.
November 2010: Solyndra closes an older manufacturing facility and concentrates operations at Fab 2, the plant funded by the $535 million loan guarantee. The Fab 2 plant is completed that same month — on time and on budget — employing around 3,000 construction workers during the build-out, just as the DOE projected.
February 2011: Due to a liquidity crisis, investors provide $75 million to help restructure the loan guarantee. The DOE rightly assumed it was better to give Solyndra a fighting chance rather than liquidate the company – which was a going concern – for market value, which would have guaranteed significant losses.
March 2011: Republican Representatives complain that DOE funds are not being spent quickly enough.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI): “despite the Administration’s urgency and haste to pass the bill [the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] … billions of dollars have yet to be spent.”
And House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL): “The whole point of the Democrat’s stimulus bill was to spend billions of dollars … most of the money still hasn’t been spent.”
June 2011: Average selling prices for solar modules drop to $1.50 a watt and continue on a pathway to $1 a watt. Solyndra says it has cut costs by 50%, but analysts worry how the company will compete with the dramatic changes in conventional PV.
August 2011: DOE refuses to restructure the loan a second time.
September 2011: Solyndra closes its manufacturing facility, lays off 1,100 workers and files for bankruptcy. The news is touted as a failure of the Obama Administration and the loan guarantee office. However, as of September 12, the DOE loan programs office closed or issued conditional commitments of $37.8 billion to projects around the country. The $535 million loan is only 1.3% of DOE’s loan portfolio. To date, Solyndra is the only loan that’s known to be troubled.
Meanwhile, after complaining about stimulus funds moving too slowly, Congressmen Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns are now claiming that the Administration was pushing funds out the door too quickly: “In the rush to get stimulus cash out the door, despite repeated claims by the Administration to the contrary, some bets were bad from the beginning.”
​

 

[GuyPinestra]

Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama.... When are you going to figure it out Synth, they are ALL Globalists looking to break this nation!!

 

[daveman]

A state Representative fighting for his state.

That is outrageous.

Oh wait.

No.

That's what the people of the state elect representatives to do.

So, Synthia is an idiot... and the OP is a fail.

A president fighting for his country.

That's what the people of this country elect a president to do.

Moron.

Indeed. It's a damn shame that Obama fights only for his party's donors and special interest groups.

Thread fail. Massive.

 

[Provocateur]

Pushing for a loan guarantee is = to handing over 1/2 Billion of taxpayer money?


How much was the loan guarantee for, and who was/is responsible on its default?

 

[Provocateur]

Synthia, you are claiming BUSH initiated Solyndra's monkey business? From your own stupid link, it doesn't even say that. All it mentions is Bush's DOE discussing a CONDITIONAL commitment.

 

[naturegirl]

Well yes, total fail. Bush's administration turned down the loan to Solyndra. True Story......here's the skinny.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/solyndra-blame-bush-obama-officials/story?id=14513389#.Tz2TjlHZWSp

Just saying.......this was an Obama mess up, all his and his alone. So now that it's been proven, somehow they have to find another way to blame the Republicans. Blame games, dividing our country, laundering money, bowing to other world leaders, lying to the people. It just goes on and on and on and some just keep defending him.

 

[Synthaholic]

1 GOP rep does not make the entire GOP. However, 1 President Obama DOES make the Obama administration.

You're comparing apples to bananas.

He. Was. Chairman.

That means he represented Republican interests for that committee.

Are you really this stupid?

There is a difference between representing an entire administration which tries (and achieved) to push through a questionable loan for a company that the previous administration had financial doubts about...

and being the committee chair and pushing for (and failing to get) a loan for a company that later goes under.

Are you really this stupid?

Now, if you can show us that the Michigan company had financial questions and the Obama administration knew about it and the Republican Rep pushed for the loan anyway, then you might have at least a similarity of situations. Right now, you got bubkus.

Hmmm....so why is the Club For Growth criticizing Upton, if this is no big deal?


Club for Growth criticizes Solyndra critic Upton



A GOP lawmaker who has been leading the charge in the investigation of the Obama administration's handling of the Department of Energy loan guarantee program is facing fresh criticism from a prominent conservative organization for his connections to a taxpayer-backed clean energy firm that he backed for a loan guarantee.

Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has been among the toughest critics of the Obama administration for providing a loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.


But Upton was also among a bipartisan group of Michigan lawmakers that wrote Energy Secretary Steven Chu in support of a loan guarantee to United Solar Ovonics. The parent company of United Solar, Energy Conversion Devices, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. ECD plans to sell off United Solar.


In a September hearing on the loan program, Upton questioned "whether the government is qualified to act as a venture capitalist, picking winners and losers in speculative ventures."


Barney Keller, a spokesman for the anti-tax group Club for Growth, said that Upton's backing of United Solar Ovonics marks just one instance in Upton's "long record of supporting government interference in the marketplace."

"If you look at Fred Upton's record, he's always favored the government picking winners and losers in the private sector," said Keller, who noted that Upton favored government bailouts of Wall Street and the auto industry. "Fred Upton believes the government has a role to play in the private-sector economy and we don't."


*snip*

More at the link.

 

[Synthaholic]

And I must say: I am on fire lately!

Thanks for your help, wingnuts!

 

[DiamondDave]

And any banking of these things, REP or DEM or whatever, is WRONG...

See.. I'll call it like it is.... now, will the OP condemn the backing of Solyndra??

 

[Dr.Drock]

And any banking of these things, REP or DEM or whatever, is WRONG...

See.. I'll call it like it is.... now, will the OP condemn the backing of Solyndra??

I pointed out the hypocrisy earlier in the thread, to no avail

 

[Synthaholic]

And any banking of these things, REP or DEM or whatever, is WRONG...

See.. I'll call it like it is.... now, will the OP condemn the backing of Solyndra??

Nope! It was the right thing to do for America.

I know you hate that kind of thing.