After months of financial turmoil, an Energy Department-backed lithium ion battery company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, Ener1, received a $118 million grant from DOE in 2010 as part of the president’s stimulus package. The money, which went to Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel, aimed to promote renewable energy storage battery technology for electrical grid use. But despite generous federal support for the company, Ener1 was racked by problems last year. In October, NASDAQ delisted the company due to non-compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission filing requirements. A …
When the government-backed Solyndra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, policymakers supportive of the loan-guarantee program said variations of the following: “If this were a venture capital firm and only one out of 10 projects failed, they would be a great success.” That would be fine if it were private money, not taxpayer money. But now a second company is going under. Reuters reports: Beacon Power Corp filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, just a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial Department of …
A top congressional investigator said on Tuesday that he believes more companies that benefitted from the stimulus bill’s renewable energy loan guarantee program will go bankrupt before all allotted funds are spent. The program, which guaranteed a $535 million loan to Solyndra before the company declared bankruptcy last week, still has $8-10 billion in authorized funding that has yet to be spent. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said he had called on the administration to hold off on awarding …
The politically connected solar firm that announced its impending bankruptcy last week was raided by federal agents this morning as part of a joint investigation between the FBI and the Energy Department Inspector General’s office. The company, Solyndra Inc., had received significant favorable treatment from the Obama administration. One of the company’s primary investors, Oklahoma oil man George Kaiser, was also a major donor to the Obama campaign – a fact that raised concerns of political favoritism in the $535 million loan the company received from the federal government. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on …
One day after solar company Solyndra closed its doors, two U.S. congressman are asking the White House for all documents related to the federal government’s $535 million loan guarantee. The probe also seeks correspondence between administration officials and the company’s investors, seeking to uncover if the White House engaged in cronyism to reward a major campaign donor. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) was pursuing an investigation of the Department of Energy’s $535 million loan long before Solyndra announced plans to file for bankruptcy. Now, using his perch as chairman of the House …
Just outside Atlanta sits the city of Sandy Springs, Ga., a community that, on its surface, looks a lot like many others. But if you look at a little bit closer at how the city’s government works, you’ll find a remarkably different model of efficiency that stands apart from the rest. Reason.com explains: While cities across the country are cutting services, raising taxes and contemplating bankruptcy, something extraordinary is happening in a suburban community just north of Atlanta, Georgia.
Hamtramck, Michigan, is running out of money. City Manager William Cooper tells The New York Times: “We can make it until March 1—maybe.” And Hamtramck is not alone. According to the Times, 15 municipalities have pursued bankruptcy in the past two years. And if the economy does not improve revenues, many other local governments will be in the same boat. Many of these cities, like Hamtramck, have already cut spending on parks, senior centers, and road maintenance. But there is one area they can’t cut: salaries, benefits, and pensions of …
The year 2011 will be the year of decision for underfunded state and local governments with pension and debt problems. The end of federal money from the stimulus package that many cities and states have used to prop up their finances, combined with the outsized cost of meeting their pension promises, will force a growing number of these governments to act. The immediate reaction for many will be to try to pass the cost onto the federal taxpayers in the form of a bailout, but Congress should strongly resist any …
On October 13, 2008, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson summoned the CEOs of the nation’s largest banks into a gilded conference room at the Treasury Department just a stone’s throw away from the White House. Each CEO was then handed a one-page document that said their company would agree to sell hundreds of billions worth of equity to the federal government through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). “We plan to announce the program tomorrow – and that your nine firms will be the initial participants.” In case anyone missed the …
Do you remember Anna Nicole Smith? The Playboy model died from a drug overdose back in 2007, but the litigation over her late husband J. Howard Marshall’s estate lived on. After forum shopping for a friendly venue and multiple appeals that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court (where Anna Nicole’s appearance at oral arguments was widely covered by the press), recent decisions from the federal appeals court in California hearing the case suggest that it is finally coming to a close: her husband’s estate plan, which …
