Posted on 09/15/2011 6:54:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Yes indeed. Everyone knew. That was the point of last night’s post. And in fact, what you’re about to hear isn’t the first case of a Solyndra employee insisting that the whole enterprise was widely known to be a bust inside HQ. Remember this snippet from a recent Mercury News story?
One former employee, Mohammed Walahi, who began working as a process technician for Solyndra in 2005, showed up at the company Thursday morning to file a workers’ compensation claim for a repetitive stress injury and was surprised to see FBI agents instead of security guards. Solyndra’s employees were laid off with no severance pay and an immediate end to health benefits, and Walahi, 41, has a wife and two young children to support.
He lashed out at his former employer, saying Solyndra manufactured solar panels that often contained imperfections that had to be thrown away.
“At least $100,000 a day was thrown away,” Walahi said. “If they are wasting $100,000 a day, how much is that a month or a year? Of course that’s going to lead to bankruptcy.”
The latest news is that the Treasury Department is launching its own probe into Solyndra, which, given that the FBI and the Energy Department are pursuing investigations too, tells me that we’re firmly in five-alarm ass-covering mode now. Here’s the scariest part of the new report from ABC:
The $535 million loan to Solyndra included a quarterly interest rate of 1.025 percent, the government bank reported in July. Of 18 Energy Department loans cited in the bank’s report, Solyndra’s rate was lowest. Eight other Energy Department projects, each also backed by the Federal Financing Bank, came with rates three or four times higher, the report shows…
Department of Energy officials said the rates for all of its green energy loans were set by the bank using a formula, and Solyndra’s favorable terms were not the result of special treatment.
“All borrowers under the [government loan guarantee] program receive the same treatment,” Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera wrote to iWatch and ABC News in response to questions.
Given that we’re still handing out billion-dollar loans to green ventures, it’s actually more troubling to think the department’s interest-rate formula might be so skewed that it would consider Solyndra a safe investment when even low-level employees knew the business was set to crash than that this was the product of some backroom deal. How many more green boondoggles are we on the hook for thanks to that “formula”?
Here’s what I still can’t figure out: Why would a White House that staked so much political credibility on “green jobs” want a business as risky as this to be its showcase venture early on? You would think they would have gone out of their way to stick with very safe green investments at the beginning to build a track record of success. Then, as the public got comfortable, they could branch out into riskier/more cronyistic projects. As it is, by the time this is over, the term “green jobs” will practically qualify as profanity. Why would the White House blow it that badly? Who gained? Click the image to listen.
Meanwhile from the Washington Post, we have this admission:
EXCERPT:
A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began, government records show.
The program — designed to jump-start the nation’s clean technology industry by giving energy companies access to low-cost, government-backed loans — has directly created 3,545 new, permanent jobs after giving out almost half the allocated amount, according to Energy Department tallies.
President Obama has made “green jobs” a showcase of his recovery plan, vowing to foster new jobs, new technologies and more competitive American industries. But the loan guarantee program came under scrutiny Wednesday from Republicans and Democrats at a House oversight committee hearing about the collapse of Solyndra, a solar-panel maker whose closure could leave taxpayers on the hook for as much as $527 million.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST
$38 billion in guarantees for a few thousand jobs? That’s about $5 million per job in guarantees.
And how long are these “jobs” good for?
It sounds like the only one getting a “job” is the taxpayer, and that job is part of a compound word.
ABC seems to be going after this story with some vengeance.
Perhaps they are the Woodward and Bernstein of this scandal?
Somebody looking for a Pulitzer?.........
Maybe they’re looking for a Republican they can blame it on.
This is just pitiful...the best example of an employee for this company is a Muslim slacker with “repetitive stress injuries” there to file a workman’s comp claim? Give me a break...screw him...
The white house is friggin’ lying and everyone knows it. And both Biden and Obama are guilty of fraud. And then there’s the gun runner thing which is even worse....because people died.
Does anyone know if Solyndra is in Henry Waxman’s district?
Muslim Green Jobs Holder Throws Obama Under the Bus.
Irony: The Mark of Quality Literature
You're assuming that there are some less risky "green" industries.
"Why would the White House blow it that badly?"
What haven't they blown badly?
"Who gained?"
FOB (friend of barry's)
—ABC seems to be going after this story with some vengeance.—
It fits. The vote on tuesday was the last straw. You could see it in Reids words. The DNC is done with obama. Expect the MSM to treat him as they would GWB. He’ll be primaried and lose.
There’s article after article about this Solara thing. Never a word said about what was their idea that would make them succeed. What was it? Did they think they had a technique for making solar panels cheaper per watt? If so, what was the technique. Were I an investor I’d want a lot of detail here.
I’m afraid Americans have become disinterested in technical things — how things work, how to build things, etc. Technical thinking underlies the success of businesses, and thus jobs.
I’m tired of hearing that we need to “create jobs”. What we need is people with business-making ideas. The jobs will follow. Also we need a climate where businesses are burdened with rules and taxes. Sarah will straighten a lot of this out.
Doubt it, they will lose the black vote.
Just look at the DOW, NASDAQ, etc.
If corporate stock values are down and stay there for as long as they have, peoples’ 401(k) and IRAs take a beating. Even liberals have those...............
Ya think?
But that would involve understanding how business works, and the academic communists Obama grew up with, and has in his cabinet, never ran a business
—Doubt it, they will lose the black vote.—
Then they are in the classic “rock vs hard place” scenario.
I’ve heard it was widely known in the industry that Solyndra’s technology was inferior and their business model would not succeed.
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