The Obama Job-Shoveling Machine

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Last January, with typical understatement, President Obama proclaimed, in his State of the Union address, that alternative "clean" energy would be "our generation's Sputnik moment," and that it would be "an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet and create countless new jobs for our people." (Never mind that the federal government does not make investments, it only spends money that otherwise belonged to taxpayers.)

Making Uncle Sam a venture capitalist was a surefire way of accomplishing these modest goals, or so he thought. He put the Secretary of Energy, Stephen Chu, in charge of the program. Mr. Chu, a physicist whose research was primarily in the study of biological systems at the single-molecule level, had no known business or economics background with which to judge the many applications for solar and wind plants coming his way.

What he and the White House did have, according to a Washington Post article published on Christmas Day, was the ability to grant "easy access" to investors in some companies "backed by the administration." What they wanted was loan guarantees and more subsidies. Many were Obama campaign donors.

According to the Post article, senior administration officials "pushed career bureaucrats to rush their decision" on a large loan guarantee for Solyndra, largely to validate a planned plant ribbon-cutting by Vice President Joe Biden. Solyndra became a much-hyped favorite of the White House, including a later visit by President Obama

The Bush Administration had left office without approving a Solyndra loan guarantee and there were ample signs that the company lacked sound financial footing. The field was booming with start-up companies. By 2000, however, the Chinese government was giving banks free rein to lend money (more than $43 billion) to companies making cells and modules. New factories sprang up like mushrooms after the rain. Chinese solar equipment flooded the market, forcing companies not yet financially ready, to cut prices to match the competition. Not long ago, solar panel buyers would pay $1.60 per watt for them. Today it is $1.05.