Tuesday, October 21, 2014

"Ron Klain is a sharp-elbowed Democratic political operative with no medical expertise. Tapping him as "Ebola czar" may not be the president's best move when, as it is, no one can believe a word the Obama administration says. And that's not just because Mr. Klain is yet another lobbyist recruited despite Mr. Obama's vow that his administration would shun lobbyists.

 Klain was also a central player in the president's Solyndra fraud, which soaked taxpayers for over half a billio...n dollars for the benefit of Obama cronies.

 In Faithless Execution, I recount the Solyndra fraud. It never got the attention it deserved - involving, as it did, potential felony fraud violations of federal law. Even for people who did give it attention at the time, Solyndra is so many Obama scandals ago that its unseemly details are tough to recall. The story is thus worth retelling. As our nerves fray over the Ebola crisis, it is a valuable window into the administration's priorities and an indicator of the level of trust we can put in the new czar's assurances.


 Solyndra was a solar-energy company backed by the family foundation of George Kaiser, an Oklahoma oil magnate and major Obama fundraiser. Prior to Obama's coming to power, Solyndra had sought government funding under the economically absurd 2005 Energy Policy Act. That law lets the government play venture capitalist, investing taxpayer money in private "green energy" boondoggles that cannot attract adequate market financing.


 Notwithstanding the Bush administration's zeal to hop on this politically correct bandwagon, it declined Solyndra's application. As one private analyst later put it, the company was "an absolute complete disaster," with operating expenses, including supply costs, nearly doubling its revenue - and that's without factoring in high capital and other costs in an industry with low profit margins. Given that solar-panel competitors backed by China were producing energy at drastically lower prices, the chance that Solyndra would ever become profitable was practically nonexistent.


 But in 2008, Americans elected as president a devotee of renewable-energy experiments who had enjoyed major support from Kaiser. Obviously, Solyndra backers were thrilled. The Department of Energy (DOE) continued to stiff-arm the company in the days just before Obama's inauguration, citing unresolved concerns. Yet, within just a week of the new president's taking office, a DOE staffer noted in an e-mail, "We are approaching the beginning of the approval process for Solyndra again."
Company officers and investors reportedly visited the White House no fewer than 20 times while the loan guarantee was being considered and, later, revised. In short order, Obama made Solyndra the very first recipient of a public loan guarantee when the Energy Act program was beefed up with "stimulus" spending. The loans and credits eventually amounted to a staggering $535 million."............

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