Posted on 11/10/2011 7:49:33 AM PST by opentalk
Yet again, evidence of impropriety surrounds the issuance of federal Department of Energy “green” loan guarantees — in this instance, loans were granted to a foreign company with Democratic Party ties.
Over the last two years, DOE Secretary Steven Chu has awarded Spain-based Abengoa — a sprawling, multi-national industrial firm operating in 70 countries — loan guarantees worth a staggering $2.78 billion for solar and ethanol plants.
Abengoa is a Madrid-based conglomerate that operates throughout Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. It is not starved for cash: according to its 2009 annual report, the firm was valued at $25.5 billion, enjoying a cash flow of $4 billion and a net profit of $288 million. It is traded on the Madrid and Barcelona stock exchanges and employs more than 25,000 workers.
...Overall, the Energy Department has awarded Abengoa three separate loan guarantees.
One was awarded on September 29, just before the deadline for the end of the fiscal year. This $132 million loan guarantee went to Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas for the construction of an ethanol plant to be built in Dodge City. Earlier in September, a $1.2 billion loan guarantee was awarded to Abengoa to construct a solar facility in the Mojave desert. And in July 2010, DOE awarded a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa’s Solana solar project. It is a highly leveraged arrangement: the deal was structured in such a way that the company has to put up very little of its own money:
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Chu proves you don’t have to be a genius to get a Nobel prize.
GET THESE PEOPLE OUT!
Somebody 'splain to me why this company needs or gets ANY government help AT ALL.
If they made that profit on the free market, then more power to them, but THEY DON'T NEED MY MONEY, and I DON'T NEED TO GIVE IT TO THEM.
In crony capitalism..as practiced by Ferdinand Marcos and some other greats..does not require the crony to invest any of his or her money. The state also doesn’t invest..it just guarantees the loan from an eager big bank lender. The return for the crony is immediate..something is sent off to Switzerland. The return for the bank(who must be involved because they know the routing of the funds)..is a big commission. The politicians get their cut in contributions and the business is floated with no investor risk. The tax payer and the mandated customers pay the bill.
I almost guarantee that has turned around since then.
from the article
Spain briefly enjoyed one of the most advanced solar industries in the world when it was subsidized by $26 billion in grants from the socialist-led Spanish government. However, the short-term injection of government funding was not sustainable. When the money ran out the Spanish solar industry collapsed,
The The firm’s global profitability is due to non-renewable industrial activities; yet Abengoa’s U.S. solar and ethanol projects would not exist without the existence of Obama administration money. The $2.78 billion constitutes an American bailout of Spain — and Europe’s — collapsed solar industry.
When our government makes billion dollar loans to a Russian steel company, this story doesn’t surprise me.
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Cain on foreign policy:
With clarity...identify our enemies.....and stop giving the money....
(works for enemies both foreign and domestic)
Green Policies in Spain are a Total Failure (2010)
..experts in a damning report exposing the catastrophic economic failure of Spain’s “green economy” initiatives.On eight separate occasions, President Barack Obama has referred to the “green economy” policies enacted by Spain as being the model for what he envisioned for America.
Later came the revelation that Obama administration senior Energy Department official Cathy Zoi — someone with serious publicized conflict of interest issues — demanded an urgent U.S. response to the damaging report from the non-governmental Spanish experts so as to protect the Obama administration’s plans
The Spain-based Abengoa will build a power central in Mexico
Baja California Sur, Mexico- The Spaniard company Abengoa will build a conventional electric power central in Baja California Sur for US$91 million, for the power generation and distribution company, Comision Federal de Electricidad de Mexico.
In a press release, this firm devoted to innovating technological solutions for sustainable development in power and environment sectors, said that this is Baja California IV Project, located 14 kilometers (9 miles) from La Paz
******
July 14, 2011
The U.S. Interior Department said Thursday it has issued permits for four new renewable-energy projects, including a solar-power plant proposed by Abengoa SA (ABG.MC) and a transmission project planned by Edison International (EIX).
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the department has approved permits supporting Abengoa’s plans to build a 250-megawatt solar-thermal power plant in the California desert and plans by Edison’s Southern California Edison utility to build 150 miles of high-voltage transmission lines that would connect desert solar farms to the southern California grid.
The agency also approved permits for two other renewable energy projects: a 200 MW California solar farm being developed by privately held Tenaska, and a 100 MW central Oregon wind farm planned by West Butte Wind Power LLC. Abengoa’s solar farm and the wind farm will be built on private land, but the projects needed permission to build transmission lines that would cross public land.
In December, the U.S. government awarded Abengoa a $1.45 billion loan and a loan guarantee to build a 250 MW solar-thermal power plant in Arizona.
Salazar said his department also plans to issue a formal plan for a program that would streamline permitting of solar farms proposed for public lands in the Southwest. The plan, called the solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, or PEIS, would allow the agency to complete a broad environmental review of desert lands suitable for solar farms, so that it could fast-track approval for such facilities.
Abengoa says it will use U.S.-made components wherever possible in the construction of the facility
Abengoa officials said they hope to being work on the plant in earnest by September and have producing power in the summer of 2014.
...The emails show that the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) coordinated their response to a damning Spanish report on “green jobs” with wind industry lobbyists and the Center for American Progress (the progressive think tank founded by John Podesta and funded by George Soros).The report from Spain’s Universidad Rey Juan Carlos — showed each “green job” that had been added by Spain’s aggressive wind energy program cost Spain nearly $800,000 and resulted in the loss of 2.2 jobs elsewhere in the economy.
Eight times, Obama had publicly referred to Spain’s program as being a model for a U.S. wind energy program.
The 900 pages of emails... show staff members from the DoE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the EPA developing a response to the report. They also show them coordinating the response with the Center for American Progress, plus the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) — two wind industry lobbyist groups (March 2010)
Abengoa, GE to invest $180 Million for Mexico’s largest co-generation power plant
Subsidiaries of Spain-based Abengoa and GE Energy Financial Services, a unit of GE, announced June 21 that they will invest US$180 million to develop the largest co-generation power plant in Mexico.
The 300-megawatt gas-fired facility with a total project cost of US$640 million will be located at the Nuevo Pemex gas processing complex, owned by Pemex Gas y Petroquímica Básica, a subsidiary of Mexican state oil company Pemex.
The Nuevo Pemex complex processes gas from on- and off-shore Mexican gas fields. As agreed in a separate transaction between GE Energy and Abengoa announced Jan. 26, the cogeneration facility will use two GE Energy Frame 7FA gas turbines. GE’s F-Technology gas turbines have accumulated over 30 million combined operating hours around the globe. In addition, GE Energy signed a 20-year agreement to provide plant services, a key GE growth area.
http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/25174/GE-largest-cogeneration-plant
So the gas comes from Mexico...across the border....?
I recall sme years ago and posted here on FR, about a company ( I think in New Mexico) that was ready to build a refinery to use oil fom Mexico but the environazis kept on with the legal battle and the project never got started.
..If we look only at the $490 million cash grant that will be given to GE and its partners when Shepherds Flat is finished, the cost of those 35 permanent “green energy” jobs will be about $14 million each.
DOE Picks (and subsidizes) Another Winner
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