The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a large loan guarantee to a biofuel company whose investors donated handsome sums to the Obama campaign. Some of them have even visited the White House to discuss federal job-creation efforts. Taxpayers will guarantee a $105 million loan for Fulcrum Sierra BioFuels, a …
A123, the U.S. manufacturer of green-tech batteries that received millions in government aid, today announced a “memorandum of understanding” between it and Chinese auto giant Wanxiang. It totals up to $450 million in a bailout of debt purchasing and other cash infusions that would grant Wanxiang 80 percent controlling interest …
One of Abound Solar’s venture capital investors blamed election-year political games for the collapse of the Colorado-based thin film solar panel manufacturer, according to a new interview. John Hill, discussing the demise of a company and technology he invested in both financially and emotionally, acknowledged that the company’s troubles could …
Amonix, the solar panel manufacturer whose Las Vegas plant ceased operations in May, managed to secure millions in federal grants and potential tax breaks even though its product had quality problems and was never really economically viable, according to sources. The politically connected company had the backing of Senate Majority …
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 …
Emails uncovered by congressional investigators show that a top Energy Department adviser sent confidential government information to representatives of a company vying for federal financing. The company, which is tied to multiple politically connected green-energy firms, eventually received a $1.4 billion partial loan guarantee from DOE. “[P]lease do not sent …
The White House released its much-awaited Report of the Independent Consultant’s Review with Respect to the Department of Energy’s Loan and Loan Guarantee Portfolio. Unfortunately, the report’s conclusions were doomed from the beginning, because it fails to ask an important, fundamental question: Why do we have the loan guarantee program …
Senator Harry Reid (D–NV) and his Senate colleagues rejected the idea of cutting $1.5 billion unspent from a $7.5 billion advanced vehicle manufacturing technology loan program and another $100 million from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) loan guarantee program—the same program that funded bankrupt Solyndra. The political squabbling did not …
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 …
Someone should really tell the Department of Energy (DOE) about the federal government’s spending crisis. On Monday, it granted a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to a German developer to help finance a 1,000 megawatt solar thermal power plant in Southern California. But wait, there’s more. Add to that a $1.6 …
