Remember the well aimed “you don’t just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers” zinger Romney successfully launched at Obama during the 1st debate? It was a bitch slap heard ’round the world. Arguably [the] best line of the debate.

And the only response Obama could muster was to take his trusty pick-ax index finger and mine for gold?? Ewww. If that is how he behaves in public, one wonders how he acts in private. But I digress.

(Transcript and MORE at Hot Air.)

Moving along, thanks to Heritage we now have an up to date comprehensive list of Obama’s green failures to refer to:

…The fact that some companies are not under financial duress does not make the policy a success. It simply means that our taxpayer dollars subsidized companies that would’ve found the financial support in the private market.

So far, 36 companies that have received federal support from taxpayers have either gone bankrupt or are laying off workers and are heading for bankruptcy. This list includes only those companies that received federal money from the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy. The amount of money indicated does not reflect how much was actually received or spent but how much was offered. The amount also does not include other state, local, and federal tax credits and subsidies, which push the amount of money these companies have received from taxpayers even higher.

The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:

1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
4. Beacon Power ($69 million)*
5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
18. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
29. UniSolar ($100 million)*
30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
32. Vestas ($50 million)
33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
35. Navistar ($10 million)
36. Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Continued >>>

Pay close attention, as more are sure to follow.

Emphasis mine.

"Top Obama bundler Steve Spinner, who was at the center of the federal loan to Solyndra, got a VIP tour of the Democratic National Convention floor in Charlotte and posed at the podium." (ABC)

One doesn’t run, unless one has something to hide. What does Steven J. Spinner (Obama Administration’s Department of Energy‘s former loan programs advisor) have to hide?

(ABC) –The Obama campaign rolled out the red carpet this week for a former top Energy Department official who was at the center of the ill-fated government loan [$535 million] to Solyndra, a California solar panel firm that wound up in bankruptcy.

Steven J. Spinner joined other top fundraisers for a VIP tour of the Democratic National Convention floor in Charlotte Monday evening, posing and waving for a photographer while standing behind the podium. When he saw ABC News cameras, however, he ran for the exit.

Spinner was last in the headlines in October, when emails surfaced showing he had pushed for the Solyndra loan from his post in the Energy Department, apparently in an effort to score the loan as a political victory for President Obama.

READ the Original Blotter Story About Spinner’s Emails

“How hard is this? What is he waiting for?” Spinner wrote in one of them. “I have OVP [the Office of the Vice President] and WH [the White House] breathing down my neck on this.”
……
ABC News made repeated attempts to interview Spinner as the Solyndra saga unfolded, and he declined. When he was approached by ABC News on the convention floor Monday, he bolted for an exit.

A DNC employee blocked ABC News reporters from following Spinner as he broke into a run.
……

Neither the Obama campaign nor the White House responded to requests for comment about Spinner.

Continued >>>

Nevada Dem Senator Harry Reid’s 2010 prediction that Nevada Geothermal Power will “put Nevadans to work” by becoming the “Saudi Arabia of geothermal energy” fell flat. Not…one…single…job…was…created.

(Washington Times) –A geothermal energy company with a $98.5 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration for an alternative energy project in Nevada — which received hearty endorsements from Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — faces financial problems, and the company’s auditors have questioned whether it can stay in business.

Much like Solyndra LLC, a California solar-panel manufacturer with a $535 million federal loan guarantee that went bankrupt, Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP) has incurred $98 million in net losses over the past several years, has substantial debts and does not generate enough cash from its current operations after debt-service costs, an internal audit said.
……
NPG was rated BB+, which is considered speculative or junk and a step below investment grade.
……
Mr. Reid, a Nevada Democrat who led passage of the $814 billion stimulus bill and worked to include the loan guarantee program to help finance clean-energy projects, predicted in 2010 that NGP would “put Nevadans to work” and declared that Nevada was the “Saudi Arabia of geothermal energy.”

Mr. Chu celebrated NGP’s potential in his June 2010 announcement of the loan guarantee, saying the federal government’s support of the company demonstrated its commitment to geothermal power to achieve the nation’s clean-energy goals.
……
A committee report said the loan did not finance any new construction and “did not help to create a single job.”
……
Mr. Fairbank [president and CEO of NGP] denied knowing or lobbying Mr. Reid, but the House Oversight Committee said Ormat Inc., which was paid $80 million to build NGP’s Blue Mountain plant, has “strong ties” to the senator. It said two former Reid staffers, Kai Anderson and Paul Thomsen, work for Ormat.

Continue reading >>>

How cozy…

Tweet the pain you are feeling at the pump:

Keep sending us your #ObamaonEmpty photos- how much are you paying at your local station? Tweet us and we’ll RT and follow back.

— RNC (@RNC) March 15, 2012

Obama’s “No Silver Bullets” talking point ad nausem:

Obama’s Fuzzy Math: 2% of the word’s oil. Fact: We have 200 years worth of energy available today

More at the Washington Post’s Fact Checker.

Gallup March 22, 2012: “A Solid Majority” Of Americans Favor Keystone XL Pipeline

 ABC: Highest ever gas price recorded in March

The average price of a gallon of regular is now $3.87, the highest recorded price in March. The average price is up nearly 4 cents from a week ago, and over 30 cents from a year ago, according to the Department of Energy, as more drivers face gas prices of $4 a gallon or more across the country.

Last week, the average gas price was $3.83 a gallon, the previous record according to data going back to 1990. [...]

Update: Speaker Boehner Highlights “Obama Energy Gap” Between the President’s Words & Actions on Addressing Soaring Gas Prices

“You know gas prices are rising and Americans are frustrated with the gap between the president’s words and his actions.  The president now says he supports the Republican ‘all of the above’ energy strategy for our country.  But for three years his administration has made every effort to block, delay, and restrict new energy production in our country.

“He claims that he wants to address rising gas prices, but his policies are actually making matters worse for families and small businesses.  And the only recent action the president’s taken on energy involved lobbying senators – personally and successfully – to prevent construction of the Keystone pipeline.

“Yet today he’s out in Oklahoma trying to take credit for a part of the pipeline that doesn’t even require his approval.  Now, this is what I’m calling the ‘Obama Energy Gap.’  Up here in Canada, and in North Dakota, we’ve got all this oil.  And the president’s down here in Oklahoma taking credit for a part of the pipeline that’s going to go through the normal process.  It’s already gotten its approvals.  And this idea that the president is going to expedite this will have no impact on the construction of this pipeline.

“Now, let me explain something.  It’s not just oil that’s up in Canada.  Right now, this year, North Dakota will become the second largest oil-producing state in our country.  There are three, one-hundred tank trains every day that come out of North Dakota and have to go all the way to the Gulf because of the lack of this pipeline.  And so it’s Canadian oil, it’s North Dakota oil, that needs to get down to our refineries in the Gulf.

“So the president can take credit for having nothing to do with the bottom half of this pipeline, and the fact is is there’s only one permit that requires his approval because it crosses our national boundaries and that’s the Keystone decision on the upper half of this.

“Remember we have 165,000 miles of pipeline in our country that operate successfully every day.  The Congress earlier this year passed a pipeline safety bill to increase the safety standards on this 165,000 miles of pipeline.  The president should listen to the American people and allow the Keystone pipeline to go forward.
“There’s a big gap between what the president promises and what he talks about, and the actions that he’s taking.  And I think honest, hard-working taxpayers deserve actions that match the words.”

Also see:

Morning Bell: Obama Mocks Critics As Gas Prices Go Up – Heritage Foundation

Obama Makes 4 Misleading Gas Statements in One Week – Breitbart.com

Michelle Malkin’s “Obama’s algae racket“

What planet are these eco-marxists idiots living on? Certainly not the one where the jobs recession is the longest since WWII.

The Obama Regime continues to flush your hard earned dollars down their green black hole. Click for sound effect.

(WaPo)The U.S. government last year announced a $10 million award, dubbed the “L Prize,” for any manufacturer that could create a “green” but affordable light bulb.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the prize would spur industry to offer the costly bulbs, known as LEDs, at prices “affordable for American families.” There was also a “Buy America” component. Portions of the bulb would have to be made in the United States.

Now the winning bulb is on the market.

The price is $50.

Retailers said the bulb, made by Philips, is likely to be too pricey to have broad appeal. Similar LED bulbs are less than half the cost.
……
Still, the contest set price goals. According to the L Prize guidelines, manufacturers were “strong­ly encouraged to offer products at prices that prove cost-effective and attractive to buyers, and therefore more successful in the market.”

The target retail price, including rebates from utilities, was to be $22 in the first year, $15 in the second year and $8 in the third year.

Continue reading >>>

$28 shy of the price goal set by the L Prize contest, yet Phillips’ $50 light bulb was  still chosen as the winner. Failure must have been an option.

Reality is not their friend but apparently the crack pipe is their BFF.

Image source: Liberally Conservative’s “Obama’s Green Corruption“

…It’s A Bullsh*t Artist.

Cato Institute scholars Malou Innocent, Chris Edwards, Neal McCluskey, Ilya Shapiro, Jerry Taylor, Dan Mitchell and Dan Ikenson respond to President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address/campaign speech.

John Podhoretz (“ignore the headline“) concludes his analysis of O’s SOTU by zeroing in on Obama’s “gravest weakness“:

He concluded with a deserved salute to the extraordinary work of SEAL Team Six in killing Osama Bin Laden. His description of how they did it was gripping — until he decided to claim that it had something to teach us about America:

“No one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we built it together. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs.”

It is a tragedy for this nation that its president believes this. America is great not because it’s a team. America is great because it is a nation whose founding documents elevated the rights of the individual.

Aside from his poor record, this misunderstanding of the US is Obama’s gravest weakness as a general-election candidate, and the Republicans running for president should take heed and go at it.

Suggested reading: Heritage Foundation’s reaction roundup, and Heritage’s Lachlan Markay fact check here: 10 Dubious Claims from Obama’s State of the Union

Susan Duclos at Wake Up America reports:

The AP, via Seattlepi.com, takes a look at Obama’s rhetoric Tuesday night during his State of the Union address and how it fits with the facts and political circumstances and it takes them three pages to fact check what Obama said and compare it to reality and finds Obama’s version of the state our country to be lacking, containing half truths or misinformation.

Read WaPo’s fact check here.

Fun Fact:

President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level, on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934.

The University of Minnesota’s Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama’s three addresses have the lowest grade average of any modern president. “Obama’s average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors,” they conclude.

Also see:

• Obama State of the Union Rhetoric Ad Nauseam
• Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?
• Obama Speech Osawatomie, Kansas (Dec, 7 2011): ‘Capitalism and Liberty Don’t Work’, Never Have –Milton Friedman’s Rebuttal [Video]
• Obama Flashback Video: Bush Presided Over An “Orgy” Of Spending

Obama’s Enron.

Crony Venture Socialism

“Here at this site, Solyndra expects to make enough solar panels each year to generate 500 megawatts of electricity. And over the lifetime of this expanded facility, that could be like replacing as many as eight coal-fired power plants. It’s also worth noting, to achieve this doubling of our share of solar capacity, we actually need to make four times as many solar panels, because other countries are adding capacity, too. Nobody in this race is standing still.”
~ Barack Obama –Solyndra INC. Freemont, California May 26, 2010

“Just words“.

Obama’s pet green shell company went belly up after having received over a half of a BILLION dollars in taxpayer monies. And adding insult to injury, they have now been caught on tape destroying MILLIONS of dollars of parts.

And YOU PAID for IT.

CBS San Francisco has the scoop:

FREMONT (CBS 5) — After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them destroying millions of dollars worth of parts.

At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.

Forklifts brought one pallet after another piled high with the carefully packaged glass. Slowly but surely it all ended up shattered.

And it’s not a few loads. Hundreds of thousands of tubes on shrink-wrapped pallets will meet a similar demise.

Solyndra paid at least $2 million for the specialized glass. A CBS 5 crew found one piece lying in the parking lot. Solyndra still owes the German company that made the tubes close to another $8 million.

So why is a bankrupt company that owes a fortune to creditors, including American taxpayers, throwing away millions of dollars worth of assets?

More >>>

Image source: Solyndra ‘Green’ Executives: $100,000+ In Obama Donations And 20+ White House Trips- Sad Hill News

READ:

Obama’s Solyndra scandal reeks of the Chicago Way

Solyndra Not the Only Company to Benefit from Democrat Ties

Labor Department May Sink Another $14 Million into Solyndra

Solyndra Employee: From Day One, Everyone Knew That Our Solar Panels Were Uncompetitive… Including President Obama

Obama Administration On Solyndra Board For Months During $500 Million Loss

Also see:

Obama’s First 2012 Campaign Offense is Defense?

CBS News Report: 11 More Solyndras In Obama Energy Program –5 Bankrupt Rest On Shaky Ground

Obama’s $5 BILLION Tax-Payer Funded Weatherization Program Fraught with Mismanagement, Waste and Fraud

DOE Gives $4.5 BILLION Taxpayer Backed Loan Guarantee to Solar Manufacturer

(Related posts below, automatically generated)

Obama’s Failed Green Venture Crony Socialism You PAID for!

This is an outrage! Good money after bad.

(Video below the fold)

"Every day that you build this expanded facility, as you fill orders for solar panels to ship around the world, you’re demonstrating that the promise of clean energy isn’t just an article of faith -- not anymore." ~ Obama Solyndra Fremont, CA. May 26, 2011

Obama’s energy department didn’t stop with the failed crony company Solyndra. In total; the failing/failed ‘clean energy’ companies were collectively approved for $6.5 BILLION in federal (taxpayer) assistance.

Five have filed for bankruptcy. The junk bond rated Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, Spectra Watt, AES (a subsidiary of ‘Eastern Energy) and of course Solyndra.

The others are not far behind; Nevada Geo Thermo (NGP) personally endorsed by Harry Reid, the recipient of $98.5 MILLION in loan guarantees, warns of multiple potential defaults, Sun Power received a $1.5 BILLION loan guarantee after a French oil company took it over, now owes more than it is worth, First Solar (the biggest S&P 500 loser in 2011) even though the CEO was forced out, taxpayers were forced to pony up $3 BILLION in loans.

CBS News takes a look at 11 more Solyndras that were part of Obama’s Energy Program (January 13, 2012)

GOPICYMI

In related news:

Friday night doc dump: WH knew before Solyndra workers flew

(Hot Air) –Two months ago, Congressional investigators discovered that the Department of Energy urged the now-defunct Solyndra in late October 2010 to delay the announcement of hundreds of layoffs to just after the midterm elections. Last night, the Obama administration conducted a Friday-night document dump in a long-awaited response to a demand for documentation on communications related to Solyndra, and it turns out that the White House knew about the layoffs in advance, too:
……
Something smells very badly. It’s clear that the Obama administration at some level used taxpayer funds as leverage to manipulate a private enterprise for purely electoral benefit to the President, and it seems clear that the direction to do this came from the White House.

Read it all!

Salt in the gaping taxpayer wound:

BANKRUPT Solyndra asks judge to pay out $500,000 in bonuses

(San Jose Mecury) –Solyndra, the Fremont solar panel company that laid off more than 1,000 workers upon declaring bankruptcy last summer, has reportedly requested to pay remaining employees up to $500,000 in bonuses.
……
Senior executives at Solyndra collected hefty quarterly bonuses — ranging from $37,000 to $60,000 apiece, with some executives receiving both rounds of bonuses — within six months of the company’s closure last August, when about 1,100 workers were laid off without severance.

X-Posted here.

Douglas V. Gibbs at Political Pistachio links…thanks!

Let there be non-governmental enforced light!

"How many American, European or other officials should it take to change a light bulb? None. How many citizens should be allowed to choose? Everyone."

(Chicago Tribune) –The traditional incandescent light bulb won a nine-month reprieve late Thursday from new federal rules that would have led to its demise.

The deal to avert a government shutdown starting Friday night includes a provision that prevents the Department of Energy from spending any money to implement or enforce the energy efficiency standards for light bulbs that is set to start going into effect for 100-watt bulbs in 2012.

The new standards and regulations remain on the book, even if they now won’t be enforced.

The efficiency rules are intended to phase out of the old bulbs that are essentially unchanged since the time of Thomas Edison and a phase in of the more efficient bulbs such as halogen incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) or LED bulbs.

Those more efficient bills have a more expensive initial cost, about $1.50 to $2 a bulb compared to 25 or 50 cents for a less efficient light.

……

At a hearing in May, Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican elected with Tea Party support last year, lectured an Energy Department official that

“you raise the cost of all the items with all the rules and all your notions that you know what’s best for me….I find it insulting.”

The reprieve ends on Sept. 30, 2012, the end of the government’s fiscal year.

Continue reading  >>>

Paging Orwell:

Secretary Chu [Secretary of Energy, who is an advocate of the ban, said of the potential repeal,

“We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money.”

Confused by the bureaucratic doublespeak? Reaching for your copy of Orwell’s Guide to Big Brotherisms? You should be. Chu apparently believes that government regulations that restrict choice and force decisions upon you are great things for society because they pre-select the best choice imaginable, taking the guesswork out of being a free-thinking being. And they’re saving you money to boot!

Chu isn’t the only one who thinks the light bulb ban is a great idea. Former Senator John Warner (R–VA) said, “We’ll be dropping backwards in America’s need to become more energy-efficient.” And then there’s Jim Presswood of the environmental activist Natural Resources Defense Council, who says, “Clearly, consumers, the economy and the environment will suffer if these standards are repealed.” The organization claims that the ban would save consumers $85 per year.

Well, that’s not entirely true. In California, utilities spent nearly $550 million to subsidize CFLs for consumers, but they didn’t get such great results. In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that energy savings under the program were 73 percent less than expected.

From recycling to cleanup after breakage,  CFL’s are a huge PITA.

http://epa.gov/cfl/cflrecycling.html#whererecycle

http://epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html

Also see:

Five Myths About the Federal Incandescent Light Bulb Ban

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department said it is offering to guarantee about $4.5 billion in loans for First Solar Inc. to finance three renewable energy projects in California that the solar-panel maker is developing.

The government’s conditional offer to support the projects drew funds from the stimulus-funded loan guarantee program, which expires on Sept. 30 and currently has less than 25% of its funds remaining.

Once built, First Solar, of Tempe, Ariz., said that two of the projects would be the largest capacity solar-panel farms in the world.

First Solar’s California plan includes two 550-megawatt plants in Riverside and San Luis Obispo counties that will be supported by $1.88 billion and $1.93 billion in loans, respectively, according to the Energy Department.

Under the loan guarantee the department offered Thursday, taxpayers would cover as much as 80% of the borrower’s obligation in the event of a default.

A third project, First Solar’s 230-megawatt Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, received a conditional offer for a $680 million taxpayer-backed guarantee. >>>

In Anti-Spending Climate, DOE Gives $4.5 Billion in Taxpayer Backed Guarantees to Solar Manufacturer

Like ethanol, the public needs to demand that these “winners” stand on their own, and if they qualify, get a real loan—from a bank, not taxpayers.

In related news: DOE Gives Taxpayer Money to GE

Forget the fact that President Obama’s job czar is the head of GE and focus on the more obvious fact that the U.S. is giving taxpayer money to one of the  most profitable companies in the world. I have one question: why?

(Related posts below, automatically generated)