What Is Total Cost of Obama’s Green Energy Projects?
Many of them have already gone under, and more do every week.
It has taken a long time to unravel the significant list of green companies that received federal funds from the stimulus program, but now that so many are tanking, the whole picture is coming into focus.
Literally dozens of companies -- most you've never heard of -- were given anywhere from hundreds of thousands to $500 million to manufacture "green" products and create what Obama said would be a new "green" industry that would be the envy of the world.
It hasn't worked out that way and the list of companies on the government's dole that have gone bankrupt grows almost weekly. The Heritage Foundation, by way of World Net Daily, has compiled a list of companies, how much they got, and who's in financial dire straits.
An estimated 10 percent of all the firms receiving the nearly $80 billion are either bankrupt or "circling the drain." The light began to be shed on this faulty industry after the collapse of Obama's pet solar project, Solyndra, and the loss of 1,200 jobs. Like dominoes, the rest have begun to fall. Here is a list of companies with the amount given from the government (the asterisk indicates bankruptcy):
- Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
- SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
- Solyndra ($535 million)*
- Beacon Power ($69 million)*
- AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
- Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
- SunPower ($1.5 billion)
- First Solar ($1.46 billion)
- Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
- EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
- Amonix ($5.9 million)
- National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
- Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
- Abound Solar ($374 million)*
- A123 Systems ($279 million)*
- Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
- Johnson Controls ($299 million)
- Schneider Electric ($86 million)
- Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
- ECOtality ($126.2 million)
- Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
- Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
- Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
- Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
- Range Fuels ($80 million)*
- Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
- Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
- LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
- UniSolar ($100 million)*
- Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
- GreenVolts ($500,000)
- Vestas ($50 million)
- LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
- Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
- Navistar ($10 million)
- Satcon ($3 million)*
This is what Romney was referring to during the first presidential debate when he said Obama was "picking winners and losers" when it comes to the economy. Venture capital groups invest money in promising industries, thereby creating growth and jobs. But when the government does it, it is usually tied to how well these firms support the current administration (Obama) as well as bowing to political pressure.