The Obama administration’s track record with taxpayer-funded, green-tech subsidies is severely flawed, and according to new documents obtained by CBS News, its failures were all too predictable. The Energy Department's $535-million loan guarantee to Solyndra is, at least publicly, its most illustrious investment blunder, as the company went bankrupt last year leaving taxpayers with a hefty bill and putting more than 1,000 employees out of work.
All in all, 12 green energy companies are in financial disorder after collectively receiving more than $6.5 billion in government assistance, five of which have already filed for bankruptcy, including Solyndra, Beacon Power, SpectraWatt, Evergreen Solar, and AES’ subsidiary Eastern Energy. According to CBS News, these green-tech ventures were junk-bond-rated companies with red flags planted all over them.
The first company under the spotlight is Beacon Power, a flywheel-based energy storage company which reaped $43 million from the Energy Department’s green energy program. The documents obtained by CBS News show that Standard & Poor’s had confidentially branded the Beacon project with a dismal "CCC+" rating, previous to the loan’s completion.
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Photo of President Obama at Solyndra: AP Images
