Chinese government subsidies—as much as $35 billion—were responsible for the downfall of Abound Solar, not a flawed federal government loan-approval process, according to testimony delivered before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today. Executives from the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer pointed to predatory pricing by Chinese solar companies underwritten …
A federally-funded solar production facility in Nevada has ceased operations, according to a former employee at the facility. The closure could prove troublesome for the company’s political allies. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the North Las Vegas production facility for solar panel manufacturer Amonix has not operated since May. …
At a Friday visit to the Golden, Colorado, campus of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar characterized the bankruptcies and delays that have plagued the solar manufacturing sector as “just minor (and expected) blips for the industry.” Salazar told Denver’s alt-weekly Westword, “Any time you’re dealing with an …
While nuclear energy is unique, uranium, its primary fuel, occurs naturally within the earth much like other, better understood energy sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas. In each case, extracting the fuel is an essential first step in the production of power. Despite the similarities, uranium mining can …
Instead of rallying together to fight the Obama Administration’s backdoor environmental regulations, which have exorbitant costs and minimal benefit, some conservative organizations are working with liberal groups to push costs higher by piling on a carbon tax. This would be nothing more than an enormously high, regressive energy tax that …
Global-warming alarmists have reemerged with a vengeance following the recent heat wave featuring record temperatures across the nation and dozens of wildfires throughout the West. But how much has global warming contributed? At least two climate change scientists refused to identify any possible threshold, with one declaring, “I honestly don’t …
A venture capital executive with ties to defunct solar company Solyndra has been hired as the new chief of the Defense Department program heading up the Pentagon’s renewable energy push. Arati Prabhakar, a former partner at U.S. Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that backed Solyndra, has been …
From Yucca Mountain to reactor design certifications and post-Fukushima reforms, incoming Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chair Allison Macfarlane has a multitude of issues before her. One of the most critical and least understood is the “waste confidence” mess caused by the Obama Administration’s nuclear waste policies. A 1979 court decision …
The Department of Energy recently awarded $25 million to a French company that posted net losses of about $70 million last year, and whose solar division is particularly troubled financially. As part of its Scaling Up Nascent PV At Home (SUNPATH) project, DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) division …
