Green Industrial Policy Faces Threats of its Own Creation

The early supply-side sugar high induced by a raft of clean energy-related subsidies is starting to show signs of wearing off. From electric vehicle makers to offshore wind developers, producers spurred along by the Biden administration’s ambitious green energy goals and lavish tax incentives have suddenly been forced to confront pesky market forces that have started to cool […]
Flashback: Drunk on Sunshine
A mere seven months ago, the Denver Business Journal quoted Abound Solar President and CEO Craig Witsoe bragging that his thin-filmed cadmium telluride solar panel manufacturing company was the “anti-Solyndra,” referring to the scandalous and abrupt bankruptcy of the California-based thin-filmed manufacturer that saw the FBI raid its luxurious taxpayer-supported headquarters. Cathy Proctor of the […]
CO Solyndra: Pat Stryker’s Abound Solar Goes Bankrupt
Pat Stryker’s Abound Solar “will close its doors and file for bankruptcy” next week according to the Department of Energy (DOE) blog. Because the bankruptcy means roughly $70 million in lost taxpayer money, we take no joy in saying that “we told you so.” Back on January 11, 2012, we wrote: Unfortunately for taxpayers who […]
CO Solyndra: Pat Stryker's Abound Solar Goes Bankrupt
Pat Stryker’s Abound Solar “will close its doors and file for bankruptcy” next week according to the Department of Energy (DOE) blog. Because the bankruptcy means roughly $70 million in lost taxpayer money, we take no joy in saying that “we told you so.” Back on January 11, 2012, we wrote: Unfortunately for taxpayers who […]
Obama and China: best friends 4 ever
This column appeared originally on Townhall Finance. Obama is China’s best friend By Amy Oliver Cooke and Michael Sandoval When it comes China, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Speech last month was nothing more than a rhetorical exercise from the political pied piper, who, along with his supporters, believes his own words magically […]
Market not keen on green energy stocks
This article originally appeared in the Estes Park Trail-Gazette. Author Jon Nicholas discussed it in more detail on The Amy Oliver Show on News Talk 1310 KFKA. Vestas, Green Energy Sold Short By Jon Nicholas Colorado has become a leader in government subsidizing green jobs. A major beneficiary of those state and local subsidies has […]
More bad news Abound
With prices tanking along with sales, First Solar, the world’s largest manufacturer of thin-filmed solar panels, “slashed its profit and sales forecast today and said it will fire about 100 employees, most of them at a Santa Clara, California, research center, the Tempe, Arizona-based company said today in a filing,” Bloomberg reports. In addition, First Solar […]
Is Colorado "addicted" to economic activity?
Part two of a series responding to a Denver Post guest column titled “Is Colorado addicted to oil?” from Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action. Gary Wockner’s editorial is long on conjecture and short on facts. It’s little more than 20 questions, which could be answered if Wockner bothered to do a modicum of research. […]
Problems Abound?
Update: Eric Wesoff of GreenTechSolar corrected something we quoted him on regarding Abound Solar’s $400 million DOE loan guarantee. “Abound has drawn down much of its $400 million DOE loan guarantee only $70 million of its $400 million loan guarantee in order to fund its factory buildout.” Eric Wesoff of GreenTechSolar is curious about what is going […]
NREL: Energy Sec Chu’s laughable statement on renewables
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu toured the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden on Friday. Fresh from his Thursday testimony on the Solyndra scandal before the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Chu continued to touted the cost effectiveness of renewables despite millions of taxpayer dollars lost on failed investments. The NREL […]
Goldman Sachs CO subsidiary gets $90.6 million taxpayer loan guarantee
In the shadow of the Solyndra bankruptcy scandal, the embattled Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program announced on September 9, a $90.6 million loan guarantee to Cogentrix Energy of Alamosa for a solar energy project. A Cogentrix press release reported: The loan guarantee will support the Alamosa Solar Generating Project, a 30 megawatt (MW) […]
Solyndra: Is an apology too much to ask?
Please send out an APB for common decency because it’s gone, along with the $535 million in taxpayer-guaranteed money that the Obama administration wagered on the California-based solar start-up Solyndra. The high-priced, pet green project – the centerpiece of the president’s green jobs initiative – went belly up, and the F.B.I. raided the homes of […]