“I’m sorry Solyndra happened; we lost $500 million, that’s a shame.

The next Romney/Rubio 2012 bumper sticker with, the obligatory, add-on “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”

Historically, the Federal government has provided benefits to our society by funding promising, high-risk research on emerging technologies that commercial investors would not fund…The truth is that feasibility research by the Federal government on wind, solar, bio-fuels, etc. was completed long ago.

NuclearPhysicist on July 12, 2012 at 3:45 PM

Identify three technologies that were funded in that manner….

Which were feasible….

Fred:

1. Bad toupe;
2. The lights for your little camera time there burned more energy than the lightbulbs you banned;
3. I lost Kate’s phone number and I promised I would call…help me out.

Jaibones on July 12, 2012 at 3:37 PM

Careful, or he’ll give you the number of someone from Pigman Waxman’s family.

Man, that is one ugly dude. Inside and out.

1. Bad toupe;
2. The lights for your little camera time there burned more energy than the lightbulbs you banned;
3. I lost Kate’s phone number and I promised I would call…help me out.

COMPLETE STATEMENT: Obama Official: DOE Energy Loan Program Has Been An “Enormous Success” in making OBOZO’s crony capitalists rich with taxpayer money beyond their wildest dreams…

“I’m sorry Solyndra happened; we lost $500 million, that’s a shame. But that’s why these loan guarantees are provided, because these are risky enterprises, and not all of them are going to succeed.”

“…that’s a shame”?!?!? REALLY?? We lost $500 million taxpayer dollars and all he says is THAT’S A SHAME?!?!

Let me write that number out to let it sink in a moment… $500,000,000.00

This is one of those things that pisses me off to no end about these a-holes in Washington. They talk about losing $500 million like they just spilled a ph*cking jug of milk!! US taxpayers are struggling with high unemployment and a terrible economy, and when these a-holes lose $500 million on a risky bet all they can say is basically “oopsies”!!

Don’t let a single friggin’ one of them ever say they are “in touch” with the middle class EVER AGAIN!!!

The incredible ignorance of the NAACP to support an administration who goes chasing geese like these alternative energy programs.

The incredible ignorance of the NAACP to support an administration who goes chasing geese like these with black teenage unemployment at 40%.

The incredible ignorance of the NAACP to support an administration with 300 gunshot victims in our Affirmative Action Hero’s hometown.

The incredible ignorance of the NAACP………..

“I’m sorry Solyndra happened; we lost $500 million, that’s a shame. But that’s why these loan guarantees are provided, because these are risky enterprises, and not all of them are going to succeed.”

Hey, Waxman, you don’t provide straight debt to high risk/reward ventures. You provide debt which can convert into equity so that you share in the upside.

Otherwise, it’s like buying a lottery ticket (which we all know is incredibly risky) when the promised payout is only a couple bucks.

Loaning a high risk venture money and only hoping to collect 8% per year IF it succeeds is something that only the federal government is stupid enough to do.

The Obama DOE has since accumulated an impressive rap sheet of green business ventures that have either gone south or gone completely bankrupt:

Erika, I like that you’ve found a rap sheet, but it seems a bit light. It seems as if the list should be bigger.

And again, there will be more prior to November.

We don’t really NEED a Department of Energy! If the Federal government wants to regulate drilling, fracking, and coal mining, that can be done through the Department of the Interior.

You are correct we dont need a DoE….it’s responsibilities were once that of the Dept of Interior. In fact, many federal departments were split off from a parent department, remember Health, Education and Welfare was split into two depts. These creations were meant to expand the reach and power of centralized federal government.

We could easily dissolve half of the feds alphabet of depts and agencies for cost savings and efficiency and leave their regulating and oversight to the states, but the entrenched federal bureaucrats and pols wouldn’t take that well.

No. A thousand times, no. It is absolutely and unequivocally not the federal government’s job to make “investments,” especially not on “risky enterprises” that really only serve as an avenue for them to tout their environmental credentials to the unthinking eco-trendy masses.

BAM!!!….Right…on…target.

Baxter Greene on July 12, 2012 at 12:47 PM

Yes! A thousand times YES!!!!

Erika, I love your style. Keep up the great work, you are a breath of fresh air!

I would not be opposed to loans going out to these types of companies, but only under well-scrutinized and very public conditions. First, no more money than has already been raised by private investors should be authorized; a maximum 1 to 1 ratio of committed private funds to public funds. If a company show promise and results, and can raise more private investment, then public investment can match it. Also, public money should never be repositioned in the deal to be repaid last, under any condition.

Additionally, all lobbying and donation ties should be made public and funds above a certain figure should have to be approved by no less than the Congressional committee charged with oversight of that industry or type of loan guarantee. This would put skin in the game outside of unelected, appointed bureaucrats.

The problem with these programs is the only personal liability attached to them is to you and me the taxpayer.

Over50 on July 12, 2012 at 1:12 PM

The problem with these programs is that they’re meant to alter the economic balance of markets. A supplier can produce at a variety of levels and prices, and consumers demand various amounts depending on their costs. Where these match up, you have “market clearing”, where everyone is satisfied, and resources are efficiently deployed. Each “thumb on the scale” move like the DoE’s has the obvious effect (flushing money away), but also thousands of unseen effects — e.g., the failed battery makers raise the price of rare earths by purchasing large amounts for batteries that will never be used.

The “No More Solyndras Act” doesn’t go nearly far enough. Where’s the “No More Borrowed Money for Ag Subsidies Act”? How about the “No More Federal Market Distortion in Higher Education Act”?